IFFCO’s unified online platform changes farmers’ lives for good

In the new age internet era, all companies have been focusing on online user engagement so as to attract more customers and have a better market share. Indian Farmer Fertilizers Cooperative also wanted to do the same for the farmer community in the country.  For this IFFCO decided to develop iffcobazar, an e-commerce portal for farmers. This is the largest pioneering effort by IFFCO in developing an online community, one of its scales in the cooperative sector. 

What is IFFCO Bazar?

IFFCO Bazar is a single unified platform that aims to serve multiple needs of a farmer. The platform offers services such as rural e-commerce, classifieds, discussion forum, multilingual chat, entertainment and resources for self-learning.  

“Indian Cooperative Digital Platform furthers the government’s vision to digitize the agriculture sector as a part of its umbrella program of Digital India,” says A K Gupta, GM-IT, Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative. 

Targeted towards bringing more farmers online, the platform is available in more than 13 Indian languages making it easy to use and understand. The platform can be used to sell and buy agricultural products across the country. It ensures delivery in the rural areas also. 

Not just an e-commerce portal

The IFFCO Bazar is not just an e-commerce portal. It doubles up as an online social networking forum for farmers.

“Farmers can interact with IFFCO experts on the platform. Along with that, it can also be used by farmers to share best practices. This gives them an opportunity to know what the whole farmer community is doing across the country,” says Gupta.

The platform will also attempt to tap the talent acquired over several generations of farmers and bring to an online platform. “We believe this can save the age-old good practices from being lost. The practices can start being reused now even,” adds Gupta.

The IFFCO Bazar platform uses technology to ensure there is a cashless economy for various transactions on this platform. IFFCO believes this can help farmers to learn how to use the internet for their benefit.

The platform also has an IFFCO YUVA portal for youth, where they can take tests and take up online courses, and information that can help them improve their skills.

Benefits

The platform not only drives business but also a lot of social value to IFFCO. Being multilingual allows IFFCO to tap into an audience that has not been unserved or underserved for long. Overall it also helps to drive a larger visibility for IFFCO.