Officials of the Agriculture Department have urged farmers and traders to download and use the ‘Kisan Rath’ app, which will facilitate their searching for transport vehicles to ferry agricultural and horticultural produce, during the lockdown.
T. Vivekanandan, Joint Director of Agriculture, said that farmer producer groups and traders can place a requirement for transportation on the app and details of the trucker will be sent to them. Then, they can directly negotiate with the trucker and finalise the deal, he said.
The app can be used to transport produce from farms to mandis and warehouses within the locality. Vehicles can also be booked to transport agricultural produce to other States.
Though the government announced that there must be no restriction in transporting agricultural produce, the traders are still facing difficulties in transporting the produce to other states, said T. Perumal, national secretary of Bharatiya Kisan Sangh. “This discourages the traders to procure the produce from farmers, who are ultimately affected,” he said.
But this app will provide some respite and officials have also issued helpline numbers which can be contacted in case any problem arises, said Mr. Perumal.
The application can be downloaded from the Google Play store.
