In a bid to overcome the connectivity (network) problems faced in carrying out transactions particularly in the rural areas, Aadhaar-enabled sale of fertilizers through e-PoS (electronic Point of Sale) devices as part of the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) of subsidy to companies, the Department of Fertilizers has decided to take several steps including developing desktop software and Android application.
This was stated by Additional Secretary in the Department of Fertilizers Dharm Pal here on Thursday during a review meeting held with the officials of Telangana government. Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Dharm Pal said they were taking necessary measures to overcome the network problems in operating PoS devices in the rural, particularly remote, areas.
To make the Aadhaar-enabled sale of fertilizers directly to farmers more hassle-free the Department was working on developing the desktop software and also Android application.
Stating that about 2.22 lakh PoS devices were being used for sale of fertilizers in the country now, the Government of India official said about 541.46 lakh tonnes of fertilizers were sold through the new system from March 2018 to January 2019.
Sale through PoS
In Telangana, DBT was being implemented from January 1 last year and out of 11,081 retailers of fertilizers 7,988 were using PoS devices already. Chief Secretary S. K. Joshi, Principal Secretary (Finance) K. Ramakrishna Rao, Agriculture Secretary (Andhra Pradesh) B. Rajasekhar, Commissioner of Industries Nadeem Ahmed, Commissioner of Agriculture Rahul Bojja, Director in the Department of Fertilizers G. Kavita, representatives of fertilizer companies attended the meeting. Mr. Joshi stated that Telangana had been trying to sell fertilizers only through PoS devices and at the same time ensuring availability of required quantitites of various fertilizers. He suggested the GoI official to examine the possibility of using the 58 lakh farmers’ data available online in the State for making the fertilizer DBT more successful. A dashboard to monitor sale of fertilizers through PoS at district level had been developed, Mr. Dharm Pal said. by District Collectors and Agriculture Department officials. The dashboard would also display the details of top 20 buyers’ list, stocks, retailers and others. He asked the State government officials to educate farmers on demanding the e-PoS sales receipt on purchase of fertilizers by them.
