AGROMART The Market for Farmers” - MyGov Innovate · Supported by Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research (SICSR)

“AGROMART – The Market for Farmers”

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AGROMART - The Market for Farmers

An India Perspective Study

A study by Chirag Shah | Aryan Yadav | Jeevesh Pachouri | Prakash Choudhary

Bachelor of Business Administration- Information technology BBA-IT

Dr. Sarika Sharma

Research Guide

Supported by Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research

Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research (SICSR) Floor- 1,2,3,4,7, Atur

Centre, Gokhale Cross Road, Model Colony, Pune, Maharashtra 411016.


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Foremost, we would like to express my sincere gratitude to our advisor Dr. Sarika Sharma

Ma’am for the continuous support of our study and research, for her patience, motivation,

enthusiasm, and immense knowledge. Her guidance helped us in all the time of research and

writing of this thesis.

Besides our advisor, we would like to thank the rest of our Course Head Dr.Rajshree Jain,

Officiating Director Prof. Harshad Gune, and External Examiners, for their encouragement,

insightful comments, and hard questions.

Also, this dissertation project is a result of the continuous efforts of the team members Chirag

Shah, Aryan Yadav, Jeevesh Pachouri and Prakash Chowdhary. Thanks to all of them.

Also, we would like to thank Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research and its

mentors and faculties for their continuous support and guidance throughout.


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DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the dissertation/ project work entitled “AGROMART”

Submitted to Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies & Research (Constituent of Symbiosis

International (Deemed University), Pune, under the guidance of Dr. Sarika Sharma and

this project work is submitted in the partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of

the degree of Bachelor in Business Administration (Information Technology) / BBA(IT).

We the undersigned hereby declare that,

1. The work here submitted is original except for source material explicitly acknowledged.

2. The results embodied in this report have not been submitted to any other

purpose/University or Institute for the award of any degree or diploma.

3. In the case of a group project, we are aware that each student is responsible and liable to

disciplinary actions should there be any plagiarized contents/undeclared multiple submission

in the group project, irrespective of whether he/she has signed the declaration and whether

he/she has contributed directly or indirectly to the problematic contents.

4. It is also understood that assignments without a properly signed declaration by the student

concerned and in the case of a group project, by all members of the group concerned, will

not be graded by the teacher(s)/Mentors/Examiners.

Students PRNs Students Names Signatures

16030122012 Chirag Shah

16030122006 Aryan Yadav

16030122021 Jeevesh Pachouri

16030122047 Prakash Choudhary

Project Guide Dr. Sarika Sharma


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CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that

Chirag Shah

Aryan Yadav

Jeevesh Pachouri

Prakash Choudhary

Has successfully completed the Dissertation/Project entitled

AGROMART – The Market for Farmers

For

2016-19

In the partial fulfilment of the

Bachelor of Business Administration (Information Technology)

From

Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies & Research (Constituent of Symbiosis

International (Deemed University), Pune)

Dr. Rajashree

Jain

Dr. Sarika

Sharma

Prof. Harshad

Gune

Dr. Sarika

Sharma

Program-In

Charge, BBA -

IT

Batch-In

Charge

Officiating

Director

Project

Guide

Examiner


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List of Tables

Table 1 Agromart Schedule ................................................................................................. 24

Table 2 Agromart Financial Projections .............................................................................. 25

List of Figures

Figure 1 BigBasket logo ...................................................................................................... 14

Figure 2 eBay logo ............................................................................................................... 15

Figure 3 Agromart Business Plan ........................................................................................ 30

Figure 4 Agromart SWOT ................................................................................................... 31

Figure 5 Agromart FDD ....................................................................................................... 32

Figure 6: Agromart System Flow ......................................................................................... 33

Figure 7 Agromart UseCse .................................................................................................. 34

Figure 8 Agromart ERD ....................................................................................................... 35


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ABSTRACT

India is an agro based country. The main livelihood of the majoritarian population here is

through farming who dwell in villages and feed the whole country. Food is one of the basic

necessities of a human being, which is fulfilled by the framers. However, they fail to get

proper price of the stock they sell in the market. Hence, they are deprived from getting profits

for their stock. AGROMART helps them in getting proper price for their stock and even get

profit for their efforts.

In a city many people invest in shares sold by the companies, they buy shares in highest

quoted price by the way of biding. In large stock markets such as BSE and NSE stocks are

sold to the prospective shareholders on bid price from this the company gets profit through

shares and acquire funds for various purposes. In this way companies get profits through

shares which are sold through a highest bid price.

Here, we think of a similar scenario for the farmers in which they can get maximum pricing

for their outcomes. To be sold to the wholesale venders. This idea is AGROMART stock

trading in which farmers can ask for the highest bid price for their stock to be sold and can

earn profit. Also, farmers can register themselves and have various other facilities such as

feedback, contact to the wholesalers, price notifications etc.

Keywords: Agriculture, Bid, Profits, Stock, Price


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Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .....................................................................................................2

DECLARATION .................................................................................................................3

CERTIFICATE ...................................................................................................................4

ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................6

1] Introduction ....................................................................................................................9

2] Literature Review/ Need Analysis/ Requirement Gathering .......................................... 11

2.1] Project Profile: Domain Segregation ..................................................................................... 11

2.1.1] Farmers ........................................................................................................................... 11

2.1.2] Stock Market .................................................................................................................. 12

2.1.3] Auction ........................................................................................................................... 13

2.2] Existing Systems .................................................................................................................... 14

2.2.1] BigBasket ........................................................................................................................ 14

2.2.2] eBay ................................................................................................................................ 15

2.3] Problems faced ...................................................................................................................... 15

2.3.1] Concept for goods and commodity market ................................................................... 15

2.3.2] India’s current scenario .................................................................................................. 16

2.4] Literature Review Table ........................................................................................................ 17

3] Problem Formulation .................................................................................................... 20

3.1] Objectives of Proposed System ............................................................................................. 20

3.1.1] Time ................................................................................................................................ 20

3.1.4] Customer Satisfaction .................................................................................................... 20

3.1.5] Cost of Quality ................................................................................................................ 21

3.1.6] Reliability ........................................................................................................................ 21

3.1.7] Relevant Information ..................................................................................................... 21

3.2] Scope of the proposed system .............................................................................................. 21

3.2.1] Customers....................................................................................................................... 21

3.2.2] System ............................................................................................................................ 21

3.2.3] Farmers ........................................................................................................................... 21


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3.3] Feasibility Study ..................................................................................................................... 22

3.3.1] Executive Summary ........................................................................................................ 22

3.3.2] Description of Products and Services ............................................................................. 22

3.3.3] Technology Considerations ............................................................................................ 22

3.3.4] Product/Service Marketplace ......................................................................................... 23

3.3.5] Marketing Strategy ......................................................................................................... 23

3.3.6] Organization and Staffing ............................................................................................... 24

3.3.7] Schedule ......................................................................................................................... 24

3.3.8] Financial Projections....................................................................................................... 25

3.3.9] Findings and Recommendations .................................................................................... 25

3.4] Hardware Requirements ....................................................................................................... 26

3.4.1] PC .................................................................................................................................... 26

3.4.2] Monitor........................................................................................................................... 27

3.4.3] Internet connection ........................................................................................................ 27

3.5] Software Requirements......................................................................................................... 28

3.5.1] Operating System ........................................................................................................... 28

3.5.2] Security ........................................................................................................................... 28

3.5.3] Browser .......................................................................................................................... 29

3.5.4] Domain ........................................................................................................................... 29

4] Proposed Methodology ................................................................................................ 29

5] Summary ..................................................................................................................... 36

6] References .................................................................................................................. 37


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1] Introduction

The farmers who grow crops according to the season and fertility of the soil, after growing

the crops they accumulate the crops, further process and pack them and contact the wholesale

vendors regarding the availability of stock. The wholesale vendor first asks the price to the

farmer who tells the price at which he/she can trade at. The wholesale vendor aiming for his

own profits negotiates with the farmer regarding the price the poor framers sacrificing their

profits generally accept the price quoted by the wholesale vendor. So, he/she sell their stock

at low prices due to some unfavourable conditions such as financial problems, unavailability

of wholesale vendors or market etc.

Some farmers who live very near to the cities bring their stock directly to the wholesale

markets and sell their stock to the retailers and end customers. But for the farmers who live

in the remote areas, it is not possible for them to come to the cities do frequently and sell

their stock directly in their quoted price. Hence, they have no other option but to contact the

wholesale vendor for selling their products in the market.

It is indeed a very long process to grow crop since there are various other conditions such as

weather issues, soil infertility, seed defects etc. They expect to get some profits for many

such issues they face.

The wholesale vendor after buying the stock from the farmers in their quoted price, they sell

it to the retailer vendors and customers as well. The retailer vendors then sell it to the end

consumer. The price changes stage to stage depending upon the negation done either earning

profits or saving money.

The sellers negotiate for profit quoting high but on the other hand the buyers want to

purchase the stock at feasible and low rates availing maximum stock at minimum amount.

Hence, from the growth of stock till it is sold to the end customers is a long process in which

farmers play a vital role.

The typical situation of a farmer is not as good as a person living in the city. They may have

taken some loans from banks for financing agricultural material, seeds, pesticides, manure

etc.

Some of the weather conditions such as droughts and floods prevent stock from growing and

also destroy the already grown stock, this is the biggest challenge in front of the farmer.


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Since these stocks then are unable to be sold and hence, farmers cannot repay their loans on

time and have to bear high rates of interests.

When the crops are grown in a healthy way and are ready to be sold to the wholesale vendors,

they negotiate with the farmers and quote a rate even bellow the quoted price of the farmer,

giving no choice to the farmer but to sell the stock at the desired rate of the wholesale

vendors.

Keeping in mind the various issues which a farmer faces such as poor financial conditions,

indebtedness, etc for these problems, the farmers expects to get profit or even the price

quoted at par for some or other improvement. But then he/she has to agree upon the low

price quoted by the wholesale vendors due to some situation such as absence of

unreachability of to the market, unavailability of other wholesale vendors etc, with

expectation of some improvement though the money earned he/she bears lots as well.

This happens due to the negotiation and saving mentality of the buyer. The seller quotes the

high price aiming at his high profit but the buyer negotiates at low price considering their

savings and due to the poor conditions of the farmers they are obliged to accept the low price

from the wholesale vendors with expectation of some income. Hence, the farmers are unable

to make profits.

Despite of all the hard work and patience to grow the stock, farmers play a major role in the

agriculture life cycle but still they fail to get profit due to their poor conditions.


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2] Literature Review/ Need Analysis/ Requirement

Gathering

2.1] Project Profile: Domain Segregation

2.1.1] Farmers

Agriculture is the backbone of the Indian economy which plays the most decisive role in the

socioeconomic development of the country. Indian agriculture is a miscellaneous and

extensive sector involving a large number of actors. Agricultural research in India has an

interesting history regarding its growth and development. It started during the colonial era

and today the agricultural research system in India includes some 27,500 scientists and more

than 100000 supporting staff actively engaged in agricultural research, which makes it

probably the largest research system in the world. [1]Technologies that powered the Green

Revolution such as the use of high-yielding varieties, chemical fertilizers and pesticides,

coupled with the expansion of the area under irrigation transformed India from a net food

importer in the 1950s and 1960s to a self-sufficient nation in the 1980s. However, the

techniques that were used to increase agricultural yield have led to significant surface and

ground water contamination, an increased incidence of pests and diseases, and loss of

biodiversity. Increased production costs and indebtedness are other problems faced by

farmers in India. [2]Agriculture in India has directly or indirectly continued to be the source

of livelihood to majority of the population. Indian agriculture has seen a lot of changes in its

structure. India, predominantly an agricultural economy, has healthy signs of transformation

in agriculture and allied activities. India has seen agriculture as a precious tool of economic

development as other sectors of production depend on it. Efficient backward and forward

integration with agriculture has led to globally competitive production system in terms of

cost and quality. Cooperatives seem to be well positioned to coordinate product

differentiation at the farm level and to integrate forward into value added processing

activities. Indian agriculture can be balanced and made efficient through proper and better

management practices. [3]Agriculture in India today is constrained by various factors. We

have created history by producing 250 million MT of food grains in 2012-13, but this has

been accompanied by land degradation, declining size of land holdings and many other

related problems. While the strength lies in having the largest cultivable land with record


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food grains production, our weakness lies in having low yields, less value addition and food

processing and large amount of post-harvest losses. The paper also dwells upon where the

opportunities exist and how the opportunities can be further strengthened to augment the

yield and income of the farming community the agriculture sector. [4]

2.1.2] Stock Market

Derivative trading is essential tool for the health of markets as they enhance price discovery

and supplement liquidity. Although derivatives have been introduced very late in Indian

equity markets they picked up prominence very quickly. Index futures were introduced as

the first exchange traded equity derivative product in the Indian markets. In a span of a year

and a half after that index options, stock options and lastly stock futures were introduced.

Since then, derivatives volumes have grown to multiples of cash market volumes and have

been a mode of speculation and hedging for market participants, not possible otherwise

through cash markets. [5]The Native Share and Stockbrokers Association' a voluntary non-

prot making association. We all know it, the Bhaji (Sabji) market in your neighbourhood is

a place where vegetables are bought and sold. Like Bhaji (Sabji) market, a stock market as

a place where stocks shares are bought and sold. The stock market determines the day's price

for a stock through a process of bid and offer. You have right to bid and buy a stock shares

and offer to sell the stock shares at a valuable price. Buyers compete with each other for the

best bid and got their highest price quoted to purchase a particular Stock Market Shares. As

a part of the process of economic liberalization, the stock market has been assigned an

important place in nuancing the Indian corporate sector. Besides enabling mobilizing

resources for investment directly from the investors, providing liquidity for the investors and

monitoring and disciplining company managements are the principal functions of the stock

markets. [6]The main attraction of the stock markets is that they provide entrepreneurs and

governments a means of mobilizing resources directly from the investors, and to the

investors they offer liquidity. It has also been suggested that liquid markets improve the

allocation of resources and enhance prospects of long-term economic growth. [7] High

indices of stock market in every aspect of measurement implied less variability of volatility.

A country ‘s depression or recession turned into severe volatile stock market which cannot

be cured in the short run. Political turmoil or instability or chaos made negative impact on

stock market which spurs volatility. The stock market volatility has the negative nexus with

the growth rate of a nation i.e. high volatility reduces growth rate. There is causality between


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them. Since stock market volatility brings forth economic crisis which has ultimately spill

over on growth inversely to other countries as well. The international trade and stock market

volatility is negatively related in the sense that volatility reduces the volume of trade and

increases current account and capital account deficits. [8]

2.1.3] Auction

In ascending-bid auctions, the bidders raise the object’s price by providing higher and higher

bids, until only a single bidder remains and the price paid is equal the last bid. This type of

auction is “open” and the participants know the best current bid. There are many variants to

this basic ascending-bid auctions. In descending-bid auctions, the auctioneer starts with a

high initial price and progressively lowers it. The price is posted and known to all

participants. The first bidder to indicate a willingness to take the object at the prevailing

price is the winner. There are also some variants to this type of descending-bid auctions.

[9]Internet has derived the globalisation which addresses the interaction and integration

among the people, different business institutes, government bodies, and many more. As

people are exposed to unlimited number of quantitative and qualitative products through use

of internet, they seek for the expected one at reasonable or favourable cost and time. Online

auction has become prominent solution to the expectations of online buyers since it excludes

the need of physical presence of bidder at the auction place and the product can be obtained

at the affordable price. This paper gives the overview of current going auction forms and the

other related issues like designing of effective, efficient and optimal system of offering

single item, predicting the end bid price and the major issue faced by online auction system

i.e. shill bidding. [10]As campus network and shopping online have grown up, the

development of online auction system becomes integrity. The online auction system based

on the campus network provides a trading platform for university students, and does not deal

with the trading process. So, the online auction system must increase its quality of service to

attract students. In this paper, we present a scheme for the online auction system using the

unified modelling language (UML) technique. We adopt the two steps to design the scheme,

and the design scheme of the system is made up of use case diagrams, activity diagrams,

class diagrams, sequence diagrams, deployment diagrams. In addition, the scheme can

provide certain reference values for constructing the campus electronic commerce and

realizing the digital campus. [11]With the emergence and spread of electronic information

systems, both the advantages and disadvantages have changed radically. On one hand, the


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transaction costs associated with conducting and participating in an auction have decreased

so substantially, that auctions seem worthwhile even when the expected advantage of

detecting the true market value of the item is relatively low. Since transaction costs have

decreased and potential gains of trade have increased, it comes as no surprise that the volume

of online auction trades has exploded ever since the service was first offered online. [12]

2.2] Existing Systems

2.2.1] BigBasket: bigbasket.com (Innovative Retail Concepts Private Limited) is India’s

largest online food and grocery store. With over 18,000 products and over 1000 brands in

our catalogue you will find everything you are looking for. Right from fresh Fruits and

Vegetables, Rice and Dals, Spices and Seasonings to Packaged products, Beverages,

Personal care products, Meats – we have it all.

Choose from a wide range of options in every category, exclusively handpicked to help you

find the best quality available at the lowest prices. Select a time slot for delivery and your

order will be delivered right to your doorstep, anywhere in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai,

Pune, Chennai, Delhi, Noida, Mysore, Coimbatore, Vijayawada-Guntur, Kolkata,

Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar, Lucknow-Kanpur, Gurgaon, Vadodara, Visakhapatnam, Surat,

Nagpur, Patna, Indore and Chandigarh Tricity You can pay online using your debit / credit

card or by cash / Sodexo on delivery. [17]BigBasket works on inventory model. They buy

products from leading suppliers like P&G, HUL, mills, farmers, etc., and store the

products in the large-scale warehouse, or small go-downs. And from there it serves the

orders to customers, which means for all preserved products they straight buy the stocks

from manufacturers. Whereas for un-preserved products, to avoid the wastage, they use

‘just-in time model’ (purchase-to-order) where they link with local farmers & suppliers,

and it assists in decreasing inventory price. [18]

Figure 1 BigBasket logo


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2.2.2] eBay: eBay is the world's online marketplace; a place for buyers and sellers to come

together and trade almost anything! The company manages eBay.com, an online auction and

shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a wide variety of goods and

services worldwide. The website is free to use for buyers, but sellers are charged fees for

listing items after a limited number of free listings, and again when those items are sold. [19]

o A seller lists an item on eBay, most anything from antiques to cars, books to sporting

goods. The seller chooses to accept only bids for the item (an auction-type listing) or

to offer the Buy It Now option, which allows buyers to purchase the item right away

at a fixed price.

o In an online auction, the bidding opens at a price the seller specifies and remains on

eBay for a certain number of days. Buyers then place bids on the item. When the

listing ends, the buyer with the highest bid wins.

o In a Buy It Now listing, the first buyer willing to pay the seller's price gets the item.

o eBay sellers have control over who can bid on and buy their items. If you've had an

issue with a buyer and would prefer that they can’t purchase or bid on your items,

you can add them to your Blocked buyers list. They can't then buy from you until

you remove them from the list. [20]

Figure 2 eBay logo

2.3] Problems faced

2.3.1] Concept for goods and commodity market

A commodity market has its own set of rules and regulations like any other market but it

is clearly not a share market as physical form of goods are traded here. It can be said that

the weather plays a huge role in this market as most agricultural products are dealt in the

commodity market. Trading in the commodity market requires a sound working


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knowledge of the transactions and the trader should make an informed decision while

trading. It is always better to enlist the services of a brokerage firm whilst dealing in

commodities. [13] Soft commodities are agricultural products such as wheat, coffee, cocoa

and sugar. Hard commodities are mined, such as gold, rubber and oil. Investors access about

50 major commodity markets worldwide with purely financial transactions increasingly

outnumbering physical trades in which goods are delivered. Futures contracts are the oldest

way of investing in commodities. Commodity markets can include physical trading and

derivatives trading using spot prices, forwards, futures, and options on futures. The trading

of commodities consists of direct physical trading and derivatives trading. Exchange traded

commodities have seen an upturn in the volume of trading since the start of the decade. This

was largely a result of the growing attraction of commodities as an asset class and a

proliferation of investment options which has made it easier to access this market. [14]

2.3.2] India’s current scenario

India, a commodity-based economy where two-third of the one billion population depends

on agricultural commodities, surprisingly has an under developed commodity and

commodity futures market. This is so because the trades in the commodity futures market

were banned for almost four decades in India. There must be reasons for and against such

ban but one thing it has done is to paralyze the research and knowledge creation in the

domain and more so in the Indian context. It has been progressing in terms of technology,

transparency and trading activity with the removal of government protection from a number

of commodities. This action of our government has thus, allowed the market forces i.e.

supply and demand, to rule the commodity. [15]The existence of the commodity market in

India dates back to ancient times. These markets influence the dynamics of production and

resource allocation in the primary sector, along with pricing system of this market. The

greatest achievement of this system was the establishment of the focused market. The prime

impetus of this market is to provide a mechanism to determine the prospects of the future

production and consumption which shall be brought to bear on the present prices. Thus, this

market established a link between the present and future production and consumption cycles

thereby facilitating the inter-temporal smoothing of prices. At present the Indian commodity

market adopts a two-tier structure for the mechanism of the system, viz. Regional structures

and Country wide structure. [16]


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2.4] Literature Review Table

Author/Date Area Name of the

Paper Relevant Findings

P. S. Anwesha

Borthakur

2012

Farmers

Agricultural

Research In

India: An

Exploratory

Study

The agricultural research system in

India includes some 27,500

scientists and more than 100000

supporting staff actively engaged

in agricultural research which

makes it the largest in the world

N. H. V. E. H.

Panneerselvam

Peramaiyan

2012

Farmers

Indian Farmers'

Experience With

And Perceptions

Of Organic

Farming

Increase agricultural yield have led

to significant surface and ground

water contamination, an increased

incidence of pests and diseases,

and loss of biodiversity. Increased

production costs and indebtedness

are other problems faced by

farmers in India

Iifl [Online] Farmers Iifl

. Efficient backward and forward

integration with agriculture has led

to globally competitive production

system in terms of cost and

quality.

M. N. Parveen

Kumar

2013

Farmers

Agriculture In

India: A Swot

Analysis

. While the strength lies in having

the largest cultivable land with

record food grains production, our

weakness lies in having low yields,

less value addition and food

processing and large amount of

post-harvest losses

A. T.

Gopikrishna

Suvanam

Stock

Market

Imbalances

Created Because

Of Structured

Products In

Indian Equity

Markets

Index futures were introduced as

the first exchange traded equity

derivative product in the Indian

markets. In a span of a year and a

half after that index options, stock

options and lastly stock futures

were introduced

S. Yadav

2017

Stock

Market

Stock Market

Volatility - A

Study Of Indian

Stock Market

. Besides enabling mobilizing

resources for investment directly

from the investors, providing

liquidity for the investors and

monitoring and disciplining

company managements are the

principal functions of the stock

markets.


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D. Bhowmik

2013

Stock

Market

Stock Market

Volatility: An

Evaluation

Main attraction of the stock

markets is that they provide

entrepreneurs and governments a

means of mobilizing resources

directly from the investors

D. R. G. A. Ms.

Nidhi Rajendra

Bisen

2016

Stock

Market

A Study On

Existing

Literature Of

Commodity

Market

The international trade and stock

market volatility is negatively

related in the sense that volatility

reduces the volume of trade and

increases current account and

capital account deficits

P. Klemperer

1999 Auction Auction Theory

In ascending-bid auctions, the

bidders raise the object’s price by

providing higher and higher bids,

until only a single bidder remains

and the price paid is equal the last

bid

D. R. A. S. Axel

Ockenfels

2006

Auction Online Auctions

Online auction has become

prominent solution to the

expectations of online buyers since

it excludes the need of physical

presence of bidder at the auction

place and the product can be

obtained at the affordable price.

C. Ren

2009 Auction

Research And

Design Of

Online Auction

System Based

On The Campus

Network Using

Uml

The two steps to design the

scheme, and the design scheme of

the system is made up of use case

diagrams, activity diagrams, class

diagrams, sequence diagrams,

deployment diagrams. In addition,

the scheme can provide certain

reference values for constructing

the campus electronic commerce

and realizing the digital campus

G. B. A. G. S. P.

Geetanjali

Sawant

Auction

Survey On

Online Auction

System

Volume of online auction trades

has exploded ever since the service

was first offered online

D. R. G. Anand

2017

Commodity

Market

Analysis Of The

Volatility Of The

Commodity

Market

Trading in the commodity market

requires a sound working

knowledge of the transactions and

the trader should make an

informed decision while trading.

It is always better to enlist the

services of a brokerage firm

whilst dealing in commodities

N. Kumari

2014

Commodity

Market

Recent Trends In

Commodity

Markets Of India

Exchange traded commodities

have seen an upturn in the volume

of trading since the start of the


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decade. This was largely a result of

the growing attraction of

commodities as an asset class and

a proliferation of investment

options which has made it easier to

access this market.

M. Pankaj

Srivastava

2017

Indian

Scenario

A Study Of

Indian Stock

Market Scenario

This action of our government has

thus, allowed the market forces i.e.

supply and demand, to rule the

commodity

M. S. M. S. I.

Shakeel-Ul-

Rehman

2011

Indian

Scenario

Indian

Agricultural

Marketing

At present the Indian commodity

market adopts a two-tier structure

for the mechanism of the system,

viz. Regional structures and

country wide structure

Bigbasket

[Online] Bigbasket About Bigbasket

Bigbasket.com (innovative retail

concepts private limited) is India’s

largest online food and grocery

store. With over 18,000 products

and over 1000 brands in our

catalogue you will find everything

you are looking for

Bigbasket

[Online] Bigbasket

Bigbasket

Process

Un-preserved products, to avoid

the wastage, they use ‘just-in

time model’ (purchase-to-order)

where they link with local

farmers & suppliers, and it

assists in decreasing inventory

price

Ebay [Online] Ebay About Ebay

Sellers are charged fees for listing

items after a limited number of

free listings, and again when those

items are sold.

Ebay [Online] Ebay Ebay Process

Ebay sellers have control over who

can bid on and buy their items. If

you've had an issue with a buyer

and would prefer that they can’t

purchase or bid on your items, you

can add them to your blocked

buyers list. They can't then buy

from you until you remove them

from the list.


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3] Problem Formulation

3.1] Objectives of Proposed System

There have been a certain number of factors which only affect the system as a business but

the viewpoint of the end user wherein these determinants play a crucial role in computing

the success or failure of AGROMART. In other words, AGROMART is the solution to these

described problems:

3.1.1] Time: Bidding is totally a time-based process. The bidding is a limited with subject

to time constraints. Due to non-perishability of the stock, the time constraints would also be

there for delivery. Also, the delivery would be done the next day of the bidding process after

the stock would be selected.

3.1.2] Convenience: Convenience has been considered the greatest goal of any business

after profits. The system is convenient throughout and is accessible to the customers, farmers

and the mediators as well. Convenience is one of the major factors that would let customers

to buy stock online from farmers. Convenience is the change what will be brought here

through our project and is the new innovation here. The new convenience here is

convenience through the farmers selling and delivering the stock to the customers online.

3.1.3] Perception: A customer’s perception can be a trick or be a sweet treat for

businesses. Any product that a customer buys is due to the certain expectations that they

have. Many products and services face new competition from substitutes and from

completely new offerings or bundles from industry outsiders. The farmers have a perception

for this system as a new technological system which would act as a virtual intermediary

between farmers and the customers for agro stock trading. Customer’s perception is to be

expected as an online store such as big basket etc. where they can buy agro based product

such as food grains and vegetables directly from farmers on wholesale as well as retail basis.

3.1.4] Customer Satisfaction: Customer satisfaction is key determinant which affects

a System’s overall growth. Efficient customer grievance through feedback system would be

our aim. Customer satisfaction and efficient service would be the main key for customer

retention. If the customer would be satisfied then it would construct a belief and faith in the

system for efficient and quality service to the customer. Hence customer satisfaction is an

important factor to be focused by the system management.


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3.1.5] Cost of Quality: Cost of quality is a methodology that allows the system to

determine the extent to which its resources/manpower are used for activities that prevent

poor quality, the management along with the mediators should provide quality service such

that the customers should opt for our services amongst the other competitors. The

management working on front and back end of the system and also the mediators should

ensure that the quality service delivered by them is not poor and is far better than average.

3.1.6] Reliability: A service offered by any system should be reliable which means he

quality of being trustworthy or of performing consistently well. The belief which is built and

created in the minds of the customers by the services provided by the system can be called

as reliability for our system. The Aim of the system should be such that constructing

reliability among the customers and public through satisfaction through quality services.

3.1.7] Relevant Information: A company should maintain all the data that should be

present once they scan, data like buyer’s information, date of purchase. The database would

be maintained for the farmers, customers and the mediators through their address proofs,

online accounts and separate system accounts such that the system database would have all

the relevant and authentic information of the farmer, customer and the mediator.

3.2] Scope of the proposed system

3.2.1] Customers:

o A convenient method to order the agro products such as food grains, vegetables

online in wholesale or retail.

o Direct trade between customers and farmers through a virtual intermediary.

o Ensuring a reliable customer service for customer satisfaction.

o Timely delivery of stock keeping in mind non-perishability of goods.

o An innovative platform for buying agro products online

3.2.2] System:

o The System being a new concept would be useful for conducting direct trade between

customers and farmers

o Customer satisfaction would result in building goodwill and reputation in market to

increase reliability

o Employing better ways for customer satisfaction and customer retention through

quality services and efficient consumer grievance system through feedback.

3.2.3] Farmers:

o Farmers can sell their stock online to the customers directly such that they can sell at

profits by the bidding price quoted by them to the highest price in which the

customers are ready to buy.

o Farmers can sell their stock in both wholesale and retail quantities to the customers.


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3.3] Feasibility Study

3.3.1] Executive Summary

Agromart will maintains a web site, it is also capable of hosting an e-commerce platform for

online sales. The food grains and vegetables marketplace are healthy and will show a

continued growth trajectory over the next five to ten years. Agromart is in a position to

capitalize on this online marketplace by leveraging existing technologies, industry best

practices, and an aggressive marketing and sales campaign to ramp up the system’s growth

projections for the foreseeable future.

3.3.2] Description of Products and Services

Agromart is considering a move to create and provide an online platform from which to sell

its existing product online. By offering its products through an online platform, Agromart

can market its products to an entirely new market, increase revenue and growth projections,

and allow customers to purchase our products from the convenience of their own homes.

There are no proposed changes to Agromart’s current product offerings as a result of this

study. Online sales will include only current products and any changes to this product line

must be considered outside of the purpose of this document.

3.3.3] Technology Considerations

While Agromart will maintain a small information technology (IT) group, which is expertise

in html, CSS, JavaScript, php, MySQL, and these would be used in building our site and

would ensure that it works smoothly and efficiently.

With the addition of an e-commerce portal it is expected that there will be an overall cost

increase of 5-10% for web server operations and maintenance costs.


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3.3.4] Product/Service Marketplace

The online marketplace for food grains would been thriving for many years. In Agromart

online food grain sales accounted for approximately 20% of total food grains sales all over

Pune. While food grains and vegetables are available in almost every store, our primary

marketplace consists of online stock market and bidding method of trading of food grains.

All of Agromart’s current major competitors already have an established presence since long

time. The top 3 competitors are currently: normal wholesalers, retailers and farmers who

directly sell their goods to the customers. A large majority of Agromart’s customer base also

consist of new customers and referrals from existing customers. By providing a more

convenient means of purchasing our products online it is expected that we will retain these

customers while conducting an online marketing campaign for new customers as well.

Agromart will distribute online purchases via direct shipping by middlemen from the nearest

farmer location. This will allow Agromart to provide timely shipping and eliminate the need

for a central warehouse or facility from which to store and ship its products. Such a facility

would require a significant capital investment as well as increased operation and

maintenance costs. However, based on anticipated growth projections, Agromart must

ensure that all store locations maintain adequate inventories on hand to satisfy customer

demand.

3.3.5] Marketing Strategy

In order to be successful, Agromart must differentiate itself from competitors in order to

appeal to customers in the online marketplace. Agromart will implement a customer e

mailing list in order to send product promotions, sales advertisements, and other special

offerings to customers who register. Additionally. Agromart will research marketing

intelligence providers to determine the benefits and costs of purchasing customer

information for bulk email campaigns as well. Another important consideration of

Agromart’s online marketing strategy is cost. Electronic marketing communication costs are

very small in comparison to direct mail marketing which Agromart currently utilizes.

However, we expect the additional revenue from online sales to greatly outweigh these

additional electronic marketing costs. It is important to note that Agromart’s current


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marketing and sales staff will require training in online marketing and sales practices. This

training will need to be contracted to a training provider as part of our start-up costs and

schedule.

3.3.6] Organization and Staffing

The Agromart online sales campaign is not anticipated to significantly affect the

organizational structure of the company. There are, however, several staffing additions

required to successfully implement the online sales campaign. All of these positions will

work within existing departments and report to department managers.

3.3.7] Schedule

The Agromart online sales campaign is expected to take one year from project approval to

launch of the e-commerce platform. Many of the foundations for this platform, such as high-

speed internet and web server capability, are already available. The following is a high-level

schedule of some significant milestones for this initiative:

Table 1 Agromart Schedule

Sl

No

Software/hardware-based projects Submission

Dates

1 Project Title and brief abstract submission 30 June 2018

2 Project Title Review and Finalization with Project Mentor

and Programme In charge

14 July 2018

3 Literature Review /Requirement Gathering to solve the

Problem in hand

31 July 2018

4 Project review 1 4 August 2018

5 Plan for Procedure/Methodology 18 August 2018

6 Summary of Semester V work 31 August 2018

7 Dissertation Viva 22 September

2018

Upon approval of this project a detailed schedule will be created by the assigned project

team to include all tasks and deliverables.


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3.3.8] Financial Projections

The cost incurred in the project only restricts to the normal stationary cost, internet

cost, normal costs etc. The overall

Table 2 Agromart Financial Projections

Name Standard Rate/hour Overtime rate

Team Rs. 400 Rs. 10

Project guide Rs. 200 Rs. 20

Course head Rs. 300 Rs. 30

External examiner Rs. 400 Rs. 40

Research paper database Rs. 50

Internet Rs. 20

Laptops Rs. 100

Stationary/print Rs. 10

3.3.9] Findings and Recommendations

Based on the information presented in this feasibility study, it is recommended that Agromart

approves the online sales initiative and begins project initiation. The findings of this

feasibility study show that this initiative will be highly beneficial to the organization and has

a high probability of success. Key findings are as follows:

3.3.9.1] Technology:

o Will utilize existing technology which lowers project risk

o E commerce infrastructure will be contracted out to vendor which allows Agromart

to share risk

o Once in place this technology is simple to operate and maintain for a relatively low

cost


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3.3.9.2] Marketing:

o This initiative will allow Agromart to reach large number of target groups

electronically at a low cost

o Agromart can expand customer base beyond geographic areas where stores are

currently located

o The marketplace for online food grain and vegetable sales is in a steady state of

growth

o Agromart is able to differentiate itself from its competitors and will utilize incentive

programs to target new consumers

3.3.9.3] Organizational:

o Minimal increases to staffing are required with no changes to organizational structure

o No new facilities or capital investments are required

3.3.9.4] Financial:

o Agromart will be in position to capture greater market share by maintaining both an

in-store and online presence

3.4] Hardware Requirements

3.4.1] PC

Any PC (Windows) should work and is what we recommend at this time, primarily because

there are more touch screens whose drivers work with PCs and more kiosk manufacturers

who use them. A laptop can also do.

It could be that for your application a Mac or Linux box will work fine, but our priority for

now is the PC platform.

Select a PC that will fit inside whatever enclosure you may envision using (also see Kiosk

below). We have been using HP laptops.


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3.4.2] Monitor

The monitor must have a native resolution of 1280 x 1024 (SXGA). AED is designed for

this resolution only.

"Native" means that at that resolution images fill the entire screen and look the sharpest and

best that the monitor can display. Alternate, non-native resolutions either will be stretched

slightly resulting in a blurred look, or have unused black strips on the sides or top of the

display.

We don't currently support other display resolutions, which includes most all of the recent

crop of inexpensive large screen HDTV-like monitors on the market. There are a number of

reasons but one good one is that we want to allow for an interactive experience, and the large

screens are generally for multiple people to view from a distance, not for touching. Also, the

aspect ratio of these screens tends to be wide, not squarish, so our content would not make

effective use of the screen's real estate without redesigning the content (which we are looking

into).

3.4.3] Internet connection

Good: T1, T3; wired cable; wired DSL; uncongested, strong wireless

So-So: congested or weak wireless; satellite; ISDN

Not Okay: dial-up connections, non-24-7 connections

Much of the content in the AED can and will be cached by your web browser, however

certain items (mainly the seismicity maps) change often and therefore cannot be cached. The

seismicity maps are currently about 250-300Kb in size. For this reason, we have had poor

results in our tests using modems or congested wireless networks, such as at conferences,

hotels or exhibition halls.

The AED frameword does support using content local to a given machine, so in the unusual

case where all the content for a display were on its hard disk, a modem or slow Internet

connection could be acceptable. We are, in fact, exploring a version of AED whose content


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would mostly come on a DVD and which would fetch seismicity maps in the background to

the hard disk as a separate task from the display.

3.5] Software Requirements

3.5.1] Operating System

Windows XP Pro, 10 or any Home Edition.

3.5.2] Security

This is a very important concern. There will be those who will try to gain access to the PC,

perhaps by finding a way to crash the AED software and get to the Desktop.

Here are three security measures that can be taken:

3.5.2.1] Anti-Virus

We have installed Norton Anti-Virus software and find it to be OK, though

purchasing and keeping it licensed and up-to-date via their website is difficult and

annoying. A free package that seems to work fine and may be adequate for many

users is called Clam Win Free Antivirus for Windows.

3.5.2.2] PC lockdown software

Microsoft makes a free package that will convert a Windows account to have very

few privileges and "locks down" the machine when that user is logged in. It is called

Microsoft Shared Computer Toolkit. We have not used this because of the time and

energy needed to install and maintain it, and a lack of information relating to the

value and reliability of it. It is for libraries and Internet cafes. It looks promising but

a tad complex.

3.5.2.3] Hide the keyboard.

The lack of a keyboard or any way to enter text for the AED is a major limiter to how

much damage unauthorized access can cause. Your keyboard should be kept locked


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in the display cabinet or somewhere near, but not with, the display. The AED does

not use the keyboard for normal use.

3.5.3] Browser

At this time, we are evaluating whether we want to endorse Internet Explorer or Firefox as

our recommended browser. Most of our development and testing was done with Firefox and

chrome, because until recently, these were the browser with the best full screen support.

3.5.4] Domain

The coding was done for www.agromart.com and the languages used in it for construction

and working of website were html, CSS, JavaScript php, and for database MySQL was used.

For project and related estimations and calculations, project libre was used.

4] Proposed Methodology

The system will first take the information of the stock and will display accordingly in the

website. It will consist of market selling information such as price of the stock, place of the

farm from where the stock has been grown, the difference between price quoted by the

farmer and our price.

The range of stock trading would range to 100-200 kms within city limits of Pune. Supplier

would get 6-8% commission as salary from the net profit. Farmer’s profit from difference of

cost from existing system and our system.

Buying Inventory from the farmers and testing them in lab.

After testing, quality approval, and giving the base price, the price would be displayed on

the screen

Customers place order on non-negotiable price and the main method for stock market starts

The leftover 30% stock would be sent for action. This 30% stock would be deliberately

reserved for the last auction so farmers could also get profit on the highest price of the stock

sold at last so they can make maximum profit.


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Figure 3 Agromart Business Plan


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Figure 4 Agromart SWOT


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Figure 5 Agromart FDD


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Figure 6: Agromart System Flow


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Figure 7 Agromart UseCse


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Figure 8 Agromart ERD


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5] Summary

AGROMART is conceptually a new idea in the era of online market. While looking at the

previous works, the paper aims to successfully define a new concept of farmers directly selling

its stock to the customers and customers buying from the farmers directly through a virtual

intermediary i.e. our system.

The project aimed at providing the maximum profitability to the farmers who do not get

profits due to the wholesalers who quote their own price for the stock. So, our system aims at

providing maximum profit to the farmers through direct deal with the customers. The system is

first proposed tot the farmers since it is a totally new concept for them. The middlemen would

be hired for quick delivery of the the goods produced by the farmers to the customers. The

system would be advertised so that it reaches maximum users so they could avail the service

and help in maximise the profits of the farmers. Here we would have 2 systems such as stock

marketing of the goods sold by the farmers and the 30% deliberately reserved stock would be

sold as bid such that farmers earn more. The system would have account systems for the farmers,

users and the middlemen, the accounts would be synced with the address proofs for which

government permission is to be taken. For quality check of the stocks the farmers would do the

quality test at the laboratory prescribed by us. The laboratory after the test would determine its

price based on the quality.

Hence, the system aims at giving the profit to the farmers and also customer satisfaction

resulting in success of our system with the help of mediators who would help for the delivery

of stock. The system also aims at innovation through a new concept of trading of agricultural

products online in the way of bidding.


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6] References

[1] P. S. ANWESHA BORTHAKUR, “AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH IN INDIA: AN

EXPLORATORY STUDY,” International Journal of Social Science & Interdisciplinary

Research, vol. 1, no. 9, pp. 59-74, 2012.

[2] N. H. V. E. H. Panneerselvam Peramaiyan, “Indian farmers' experience with and

perceptions of organic farming,” Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, pp. 1-14,

2012.

[3] “IIFL,” [Online]. Available: https://www.indiainfoline.com/article/article-latest/how-

would-you-explain-a-commodity-market-to-a-simple-layman-117082900470_1.html.

[4] M. N. Parveen Kumar, “Agriculture in India: A SWOT analysis,” Indian Journal of

Applied Research, vol. 3, no. 7, pp. 4-6, 2013.

[5] A. T. GopiKrishna Suvanam, “Imbalances Created because of Structured Products in

Indian Equity markets,” pp. 1-.3.

[6] S. Yadav, “STOCK MARKET VOLATILITY - A STUDY OF INDIAN STOCK

MARKET,” | IC Value 80.2, vol. 4, no. 6, pp. 629-632, 2017.

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COMMODITY MARKET,” International Journal of Management Studies, vol. 3, no. 1,

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[9] P. Klemperer, “Auction Theory,” Journal of Ecomomic Surveys, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 227-

286, 1999.

[10] D. R. A. S. Axel Ockenfels, “ONLINE AUCTIONS,” NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES,

pp. 3-69, 2006.


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[11] C. Ren, “Research and Design of Online Auction System Based on the Campus Network

Using UML,” Second Pacific-Asia Conference on Web Mining and Web-based

Application, 2009 .

[12] G. B. A. G. S. P. Geetanjali Sawant, “Survey on Online Auction System,” IOSR Journal

of Computer Engineering (IOSR-JCE), pp. 58-60.

[13] D. R. G. Anand, “Analysis of the volatility of the Commodity Market,” International

Journal of Business and Management Invention, vol. 6, no. 9, pp. 61-74, 2017.

[14] N. Kumari, “RECENT TRENDS IN COMMODITY MARKETS OF INDIA,” Abhinav

International Monthly Refereed Journal, vol. 3, no. 12, pp. 1-6, 2014.

[15] M. Pankaj Srivastava, “A Study of Indian Stock Market Scenario,” Imperial Journal of

Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR) , vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 657-662, 2017.

[16] M. S. M. S. I. Shakeel-Ul-Rehman, “Indian Agricultural Marketing,” Asian Economic and

Social Society, pp. 69-75, 2011.

[17] “bigbasket,” [Online]. Available: https://www.bigbasket.com/about-us/?nc=bt.

[18] “BigBasket Process,” [Online]. Available:

https://www.ecommercewebsitedevelopmentchennai.in/blog/how-to-start-bigbasket-like-

website/.

[19] “Ebay Process,” [Online]. Available: https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/resolving-

buyer-issues/blocking-buyer?id=4082.

[20] “ebay,” [Online]. Available: https://pages.ebay.in/help/account/questions/about-

ebay.html.


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Documents

AGROMART The Market for Farmers” - MyGov Innovate · Supported by Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research (SICSR)