THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala Agriculture department aims to sell 100 agriculture products through e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Flipkart, by March 31.
The state agriculture minister P Prasad told the Kerala Assembly on Wednesday. The products will be marketed under the brand name ‘Kerala Agro’. The department has already started selling around 65 of the products online.
According to the minister, the department has started promoting value agriculture products and online sales to find better returns for the farmers or farmers' collectives. “We plan to produce one value-added agriculture product from each Krishi Bhavan. The online sale of the products will be scaled up in a phased manner,” said Prasad.
There are 416 Krishi Bhavans in the state. The department has started Kera Gramam (coconut farmers collective), Koon Gramam (mushroom farmers collective) and then Gramam (honey farmers collective), with the aim of making value-added products from coconut, mushroom and honey, respectively.
The minister also informed that the department would soon complete the steps to form a Kerala Agro Business Company, a public-private partnership company modelled after Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL).