GEOSPATIAL ANALYSIS BASED AGRICULTURAL TRADE

Abstract

Agriculture has continued to provide a source of income for the majority of India's population, either directly or indirectly. Over time, the structure of Indian agriculture trade has changed significantly but still the methods are very traditional and no advance technologies like Geospatial Data Science or Artificial Intelligence are used for its betterment. India, which is primarily an agricultural economy, is showing signs of progress in agriculture and related businesses. Agriculture has always been regarded as a valuable tool for economic development in India, as many other major sectors of production depend on it. Despite the government's efforts to double the income of the farmers, there is still a difference between a farmer's investment and the return on that investment. The laws governing agriculture markets in India have been archaic for a long time. The government has found reasons to over-regulate the agriculture industry, such as price controls, export bans, and restrictions on private trade. Agriculture's growth has been hindered by excessive regulation and a lack of freedom, making it one of the most uncompetitive sector. The government announced a complete reform of the country's farm markets after recognizing the underlying flaws with their functioning. The government then passed the three Farm Bills on September 20, amidst great controversy in Parliament. This study incorporated the new farms laws passed by the Government of India in September 2020 and developed a traditional mandi type model on an online platform with additional geospatial analysis component to remove the existing constraints in the existing flawed agriculture market which is currently regulated by the states under the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC). This study will outline how the usage of geospatial data and location intelligence would prove to be a game changer in the Indian agriculture sector. This study develops a WebGIS application where farmers and buyers will come to execute agricultural trade form any location in the country through an online platform with the help of v geospatial analysis-based information provided to them which they were previously unable to conduct due to the restrictions imposed by APMC regulations and lack of any geospatial analysis-based infrastructure for agricultural trade. In this WebGIS application, the farmers and buyers will be provided with principal geospatial analysis based information like shortest distance between their geolocations, location referenced dynamic map pointing the location of each farmer and buyer, and network analysis based optimal route information via interactive maps along with other necessary features of listing and buying options to let the buyers make a calculated decision while buying the agricultural produce from any part of the country which will in turn enable the farmers to sell their agricultural produce to any part of the country hence, empowering them and subsequently increasing their revenue. Furthermore, the provision for the third-party logistics is also provided where they can register themselves and the users can choose the most suitable third-party logistics agency to handle the agricultural trade's transportation.