If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the Palliakkal Primary Cooperative Bank has an entire State queuing up to pay it compliments.
Over the past 20 years, the bank has backed small and marginal farmers to the hilt, providing them the A to Z of farming and built a legacy that will now be leveraged by the State, which wants to build a platform that will partly imitate online service aggregators to bring together farmers, landowners, consumers, bankers, technology providers and more.
“It will be an ever-expanding platform, growing as it addresses new needs,” said an official familiar with the development and referring to the recent launch of a mobile application that brings together organic food producers in the State and consumers. It will be possible now for consumers anywhere in the world to access organic produce from the State.
The development of the online platform and related applications are being carried out under the aegis of the Kerala Development and Innovation Strategic Council. There is a big demand for organic produce from Palliakkal farmers, said president of the cooperative bank M.S. Vijayachandran. Reaching out to customers has been a difficult task. He is confident that an effective distribution network can be developed to match the growing demand.
“As a model to address the issue of accessing produce what comes immediately to our mind is online food aggregators,” said M.P. Vijayan, secretary of the bank.
