“AGROMART – The Market for Farmers”
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 Dr. Sarika Prof. Harshad Dr. Sarika Jain Sharma Gune Sharma Program-In Batch-In Officiating Project Examiner Charge, BBA - Charge Director Guide IT
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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 7 | P a g e
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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. 9 | P a g e
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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 15 | P a g e
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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
Name of the Author/Date Area Relevant Findings Paper The agricultural research system in Agricultural India includes some 27,500 P. S. Anwesha Research In scientists and more than 100000 Borthakur Farmers India: An supporting staff actively engaged 2012 Exploratory in agricultural research which Study makes it the largest in the world Increase agricultural yield have led to significant surface and ground Indian Farmers' N. H. V. E. H. water contamination, an increased Experience With Panneerselvam incidence of pests and diseases, Farmers And Perceptions Peramaiyan and loss of biodiversity. Increased Of Organic 2012 production costs and indebtedness Farming are other problems faced by farmers in India . Efficient backward and forward integration with agriculture has led Iifl [Online] Farmers Iifl to globally competitive production system in terms of cost and quality. . While the strength lies in having the largest cultivable land with M. N. Parveen Agriculture In record food grains production, our Kumar Farmers India: A Swot weakness lies in having low yields, 2013 Analysis less value addition and food processing and large amount of post-harvest losses Index futures were introduced as Imbalances the first exchange traded equity Created Because A. T. derivative product in the Indian Stock Of Structured Gopikrishna markets. In a span of a year and a Market Products In Suvanam half after that index options, stock Indian Equity options and lastly stock futures Markets were introduced . Besides enabling mobilizing resources for investment directly Stock Market from the investors, providing S. Yadav Stock Volatility - A liquidity for the investors and 2017 Market Study Of Indian monitoring and disciplining Stock Market company managements are the principal functions of the stock markets.
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Main attraction of the stock Stock Market markets is that they provide D. Bhowmik Stock Volatility: An entrepreneurs and governments a 2013 Market Evaluation means of mobilizing resources directly from the investors The international trade and stock A Study On D. R. G. A. Ms. market volatility is negatively Existing Nidhi Rajendra Stock related in the sense that volatility Literature Of Bisen Market reduces the volume of trade and Commodity 2016 increases current account and Market capital account deficits In ascending-bid auctions, the bidders raise the object’s price by P. Klemperer providing higher and higher bids, Auction Auction Theory 1999 until only a single bidder remains and the price paid is equal the last bid Online auction has become prominent solution to the D. R. A. S. Axel expectations of online buyers since Ockenfels Auction Online Auctions it excludes the need of physical 2006 presence of bidder at the auction place and the product can be obtained at the affordable price. The two steps to design the scheme, and the design scheme of Research And the system is made up of use case Design Of diagrams, activity diagrams, class Online Auction C. Ren diagrams, sequence diagrams, Auction System Based 2009 deployment diagrams. In addition, On The Campus the scheme can provide certain Network Using reference values for constructing Uml the campus electronic commerce and realizing the digital campus G. B. A. G. S. P. Survey On Volume of online auction trades Geetanjali Auction Online Auction has exploded ever since the service Sawant System was first offered online Trading in the commodity market requires a sound working Analysis Of The knowledge of the transactions and D. R. G. Anand Commodity Volatility Of The the trader should make an 2017 Market Commodity informed decision while trading. Market It is always better to enlist the services of a brokerage firm whilst dealing in commodities Recent Trends In Exchange traded commodities N. Kumari Commodity Commodity have seen an upturn in the volume 2014 Market Markets Of India 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. This action of our government has M. Pankaj A Study Of Indian thus, allowed the market forces i.e. Srivastava Indian Stock Scenario supply and demand, to rule the 2017 Market Scenario commodity At present the Indian commodity M. S. M. S. I. Indian market adopts a two-tier structure Shakeel-Ul- Indian Agricultural for the mechanism of the system, Rehman Scenario Marketing viz. Regional structures and 2011 country wide structure Bigbasket.com (innovative retail concepts private limited) is India’s largest online food and grocery Bigbasket Bigbasket About Bigbasket store. With over 18,000 products [Online] and over 1000 brands in our catalogue you will find everything you are looking for Un-preserved products, to avoid the wastage, they use ‘just-in time model’ (purchase-to-order) Bigbasket Bigbasket Bigbasket where they link with local [Online] Process farmers & suppliers, and it assists in decreasing inventory price Sellers are charged fees for listing items after a limited number of Ebay [Online] Ebay About Ebay free listings, and again when those items are sold. 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 Ebay [Online] Ebay Ebay Process 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 Software/hardware-based projects Submission No Dates 1 Project Title and brief abstract submission 30 June 2018 2 Project Title Review and Finalization with Project Mentor 14 July 2018 and Programme In charge 3 Literature Review /Requirement Gathering to solve the 31 July 2018 Problem in hand 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
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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 35 | P a g e
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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
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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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