Tobacco farmers, for long, have been mute spectators at auction sites.
Price-fixing by cartels has sidelined their role in the trade.
But today, they are equipped with technology that combines the power of mobility and bar-coding (a unique number and its visual depiction that can be read by scanners).
Each bale (of about 100 kg) is bar-coded and classified according to the quality. Traders’ bids are immediately displayed on huge television screens, giving farmers real-time information, unlike the old system where traders had to shout the price.
Though the officials are trying to explain the benefits, farmers at the Torredu auction platform, one of the 19 platforms in the State, are yet to come to terms with the new system introduced by the Tobacco Board for the first time this season. NIIT Technologies has bagged the mandate to implement the system both in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
The auction process is now simple. The graded tobacco bales are kept in neat rows on the auction floor. The auction superintendent (a Tobacco Board official) stops at each bale, pulls out a few tobacco leaves to check the grade (F1, F 2, F3, etc) and states the opening price.
Then the buyers, representing tobacco exporters as well as cigarette manufacturers, punch in their bids secretly into their handsets and the prices are displayed on the screen. A few minutes later, the bale is awarded to the highest bidder.
“The biggest benefit is, the farmer will get income based on the international pricing. We expect that their incomes will go up by 15-25 per cent as the electronic systems remove subjectivity,” NIIT Tech President Arvind Mehtrotra (Asia-Pacific and India), said.
Lost still
Though the process is simple, some farmers still feel lost. Veera Venkata Satyanarayana, a farmer at Torredu auction floor near Rajahmundry, says he is more comfortable with the old open auction as he could be at the spot watching the process.
“We have not seen any marked price increase after the e-auctions have been introduced. The buyers can still form syndicates and depress prices. Price fluctuations depend on the market dynamics, not the mode of auctions,” says another farmer, also a Satyanarayana.
I.V.R.A Kumar, senior grading officer in charge, says, “I can certainly assert that e-auctions are more efficient and transparent than the old system. Our farmers have shown great resilience in adapting to changes.”