Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal said that he will be able to onboard the entire Indan farm value chain, especially, the Farmer Producers’ Organisations (FPOs), vegetable markets, processors, exporters, micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and the small retailers, with the help of National Bank of Agriculture, and Rural Development (NABARD), The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). 

Goyal said in a virtual event for the launch of a three-day Grand Hackathon of ONDC and NABARD in which early-stage startups will participate and solve two problem statements to bring e-commerce to agricultural tech. Rewards of Rs 1.2 Crore will be given to the winners. 

Goyal further added that farmers’ welfare and increasing their income is his top priority, he said, the more we enable our farmers to get access to farm inputs, to get connected with markets using technology and innovation, the faster our economic growth will be.  ONDC will help small traders, farmers and sellers participate in the market with an equal footing as large players. This will break the barriers that large platforms are enjoying and enable small players to enjoy the fruits of digital technology.

"It will also eliminate a lot of malpractices like algorithms that are often used by Big Tech who literally force consumers to certain suppliers, who are able to prefer suppliers over others, who are able to have higher commissions from certain people and then promote their products as against giving a choice to the consumer of all suppliers equally," Goyal added 

With products offered on different platforms, via different modes of logistics/payment, we will be able to see a revolution in the marketplace, he said.

NABARD Chairman Dr. GR Chintala said NABARD is a big developmental financial institution posting Rs. 7.5 lakh crore balance sheet annually. 

India has 140 million farmers and they produce quite a lot but they're still at the mercy of the market. "Can we create a sustainable solution by creating a sustainable market? ONDC is going to help farmers and artisans to discover prices which they were denied for centuries," Chinthala said.

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