The Directorate of Cashew Research (DCR) at Puttur in Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada district has developed software to help farmers and the institutes that supply plants to the former.

The Cashew Farmers’ Tracking System (CFTS) has a QR code system for farmers to get information on purchased varieties and data analytics for the seller to track the location of planting, farmers, and varieties.

Mohana GS, Principal Scientist and in-charge of the Agricultural Knowledge Management Unit (AKMU) of DCR responsible for the concept and management of CFTS, told businessline that farmers often purchase cashew grafts from the nursery and plant them on the field. However, they often forget the variety’s identity and sometimes end up with the wrong identification.

For farmers

With CFTS, farmers can easily track varieties they purchase. Whenever a farmer purchases a plant, the seller (like the institute in this case) enters details of the buyer and details of the crop, such as the variety and price of the cashew grafts, in the data entry form. Then, a billing invoice will be generated with a unique QR code printed on the bill. Farmers can scan the QR code to access information on the purchased varieties. DCR also sends a WhatsApp message that includes the links for the invoice and varieties purchased by the farmer.

He said farmers get details of the salient features of the variety of yield, nut weight, leaves, fruit characteristics, and photos when they scan it. Links to apps such as ‘Cashew India’, ‘Cashew Protect’, and the DCR website are also provided. A feedback form is provided for farmers.

How does it help plant seller

It is essential for an institute or nursery selling plants to keep track of the farmers who have taken the plants, the location of planting, and the survival rate. These data help estimate  the area occupied by a crop or variety. They also help assess the institute’s impact on  the spread of varieties is concerned. Keeping these in view, DCR developed CFTS, he said.

Explaining its benefits to the seller, he said generating  data through various queries is possible. For example, the seller will get data on the number of grafts sold for a particular period or information on farmers who have taken a particular variety.

He said it is possible to generate data on grafts sold at the state, district, taluk, and village levels, variety-wise.

Mohan said CFTS could help generate various data insights on the cashew crop such as the spread of a specific variety during a particular period in a particular geographical area, farmers’ priorities  for different varieties, and sales statistics to plan future production, etc.

At present, CFTS is being implemented in DCR’s cashew nurseries, and its All-India Coordinated Research Project centres spread across the country. This allows DCR to assess the demand and spread of different varieties along with other datasets at the national level.

He said ICAR institutes and agriculture universities selling plants of different crops can adapt this software with suitable customisation. The software can be suitably altered to cater to the needs of private nurseries selling a range of plants.

Jijo Joseph, Young Professional-II, AKMU, DCR, is responsible for design, development and maintenance of this software, he said.

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