“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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 “AGROMART – The Market for Farmers”

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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 “AGROMART – The Market for Farmers”

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
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 “AGROMART – The Market for Farmers”

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.
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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
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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

Upon approval of this project a detailed schedule will be created by the assigned project
team to include all tasks and deliverables.
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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

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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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EXPLORATORY STUDY,” International Journal of Social Science & Interdisciplinary
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[3] “IIFL,” [Online]. Available: https://www.indiainfoline.com/article/article-latest/how-
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pp. 3-69, 2006.

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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
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[17] “bigbasket,” [Online]. Available: https://www.bigbasket.com/about-us/?nc=bt.
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[19] “Ebay Process,” [Online]. Available: https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/resolving-
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ebay.html.

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