India is one of the biggest producer and consumer of cotton in the world. Yet problems around the industry abound. Farmers feel that the minimum support price set by government is often inadequate, as cultivation costs have increased, as have input costs. And irregular rainfall, volatility in market and poor supply chains don’t help.
This was when the Indian Texpreneurs Federation stepped in. They have built an app that helps farmers with a key aspect of the cotton trade – price determination. The organization selected 80 mills operating in polyester and polyester yarn with a capacity of 20-lakh spindles for this pilot project. This app is going to help them in cracking the demand supply conundrum after depending on word-of-mouth speculation for decades.
The app provides a good platform to mills to update the last sold price of their yarn, stock position and market data. Prices will be decided on monthly basis with the help of a survey across Tamilnadu. This app will be like a guide for mill owners who are boggled by the complexity of market. Different mills currently sell yarn at different prices, and mills that end up selling their goods for too little end up feeling hard done by. This application can plug that hole in system, said Deepa Lakshmi , Jt. MD at Ellen Textiles in Coimbatore. This application even prevents any kind of animosity between mills.
While apps that cater to the urban consumer are proliferating, it’s heartening to see technology being used to solve some of India’s real problems.