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eUparjan (eProcurement of foodgrains)
Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection, Govt of Madhya Pradesh
India

The Problem

The situation before the initiative was quite different from the current scenario. There were inefficiencies and considerable scope of corruption prior to the eUparjan system in the food grains procurement process as under:
• Long waiting queues (some times for days) of farmers for selling their crop, since they did not know on which date to bring their produce to the centre (during the 2 month procurement period); this also led to corruption and bribing for queue-jumping; the more powerful farmers exploited smaller ones by buying up their produce at lower rates, defeating the very purpose of MSP;
• Manual cheque payments to farmers (delay, illegibly written cheques, subsequent loss or damage to the cheques, with difficulty in having them replaced, rejection by banks due to spelling mistakes, malpractices due to cheque tampering);
• Below optimum functioning of Procurement Centres; confusion at centres due to uneven rush, lack of packaging material replenishment in time;
• Poor decision support system/ irregular forecasting, based only on telephone calls, and subjective assessment; To get the updated status of the food grain procurement, the State and the District officials have to wait for days to get the procurement details after giving calls to different officials and after compilation at the District and State level
• Less-efficient monitoring and control of procurement (purchase, payment, packaging, transportation, storage) processes;
• Great difficulty in inquiring into complaints by farmers, as no ‘digital trail’ available; .. It took days and even months to do the reconciliation of the procurement payments because of late updation of procurement details from the different districts officials.
• Absence of transparency and citizen interface
• Malpractices

The main beneficiaries of the eUparjan system has been farmers, especially the small farmers, and women farmers. The larger and richer farmers managed to get the advantages in an inefficient system; but the marginal farmers and the women farmers got left out, as they lacked empowerment. The eUparjan system brought order and efficiency, and created a digital trail for tracking and monitoring – this worked to the advantage of the otherwise disadvantaged, and improved the situation overall in a critical area such as food and civil supplies.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
The objective behind eUparjan system is to use IT to facilitate the farmers of the state to get remunerative prices for their produce, by creating a system reaching out to the remotest rural areas during the two harvesting seasons, offering a minimum support price (MSP). The food grains thus procured are used to stock the public distribution system (PDS) which supplies food grains at subsidised prices to 15 million poor families on a monthly basis through a network of 22,000 fair price outlets.

eUparjan computerization resulted in controlling diversion and leakage in procurement operations. It brings transparency to Government operations, reduces time and cost of procurement substantially, and virtually eliminates corruption. The key elements of the solution were:

 Re-engineering the entire process of procurement by looking at the old system, and re-designing it to achieve the desired results in a more efficient, corruption-free manner, with complete transparency and digital inclusion of the masses.
 Software application developed through close consultation with all stakeholders, and constant iterations and improvements.
 Registration of 1.5 million farmers, showing landholding, sown area, bank account and mobile numbers to have a unique and integrated database. (Farmers who did not possess a mobile in the family gave numbers of neighbors or friends or village headman; however, two-thirds of farmers did have a mobile phone in the family).
 Some 5,000 data entry operators, runners and cooperative society managers were given Hands-on Training, organized at State and District level for all stakeholders for capacity building. A training-of-trainers strategy was adopted to complete this massive training exercise within two months. This itself has resulted in a huge injection of ‘digital awareness’ in the rural areas and indirectly positively impacted the functioning of cooperative societies in their other activities as well.
 SMS (mobile text message) alert mechanism for farmers to have a systematic procedure for the sale of their produce. Farmers were asked to give a choice of date during the two month harvest period, and the software chooses the date closest to the choice, depending upon the handling capacity of the procurement centre. The farmer is sms-ed the date at the season start, and reminded four days before the actual date. Waiting time at procurement centres was reduced from a period of several days to just a few hours.
 Payments transferred to farmers’ bank accounts directly by bank transfer instead of manual cheque payments to farmers which reduced the delay, loss, malpractices involved in the payment process.
 24X7 Call Centre established at State HQ to deal with inquiries/complaints from farmers.
 Near real-time MIS reports covering quantity purchased from each farmer, tracking availability of packaging material, quantity transported from each centre, warehousing, payment to farmers, and re-deployment of personnel etc, thus enhancing decision making and planning at the District and State level, plugging loopholes, and weeding out malpractices and corruption.
 Digital trail created for monitoring and evaluation, and massive digital inclusion achieved by involving farmers showing them what IT can do for them.

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The solution grew out of the brainstorming at the leadership level of the Food and Civil Supplies Department, and its consultation with various stakeholders. The entire exercise was coordinated by the Additional Chief Secretary (Food), assisted by the Food Commissioner (Food Directorate). The roles and responsibilities of all the stakeholders involved in the eUparjan project:

S.No. Stakeholder Role
1 Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Headed by the Additional Chief Secretary (Food), the Department administers the Public Distribution System and Procurement of Food Grains, which is an important constituent of the strategy for food security to the population, coupled with farmer welfare. It provided complete managerial and administrative leadership, as well as inter-departmental and inter-agency coordination, and communication with stakeholders.
2 National Informatics Center (NIC), Bhopal The Department leadership interacted closely with NIC for designing, developing, operating and maintaining the software application at State Level. NIC assisted in training and operational support.
3 Madhya Pradesh State Civil Supplies Corporation (MPSCSC) Madhya Pradesh State Civil Supplies Corporation Limited is a state public sector undertaking, under the Department of Food. MPSCSC is involved in overall project management and operational support, financial underpinning, and ownership of the procured food grains.
4 MARKFED The Madhya Pradesh State Cooperative Marketing Federation (MARKFED) is an Apex level Federation of Cooperative Marketing Societies in the State of Madhya Pradesh. It worked under the guidance of the Department of Food as procurement agency in selected districts.
5 MAP_IT Madhya Pradesh Agency for Promotion of Information Technology (MAP_IT), Government of Madhya Pradesh assisted in monitoring the software application development and solution implementation.
6 District Central Cooperative Banks The Department of Food and Civil Supplies coordinated the Cooperative Banks for payment to farmers, most of whom had accounts these banks, through bank transfer.
7 Agricultural Cooperative Societies The Department of Food and Civil Supplies engaged local Agricultural Cooperative Societies to manage the 2,300 procurement centres, giving them the computer hardware, paying for the data entry operators, training their managers, and also granting them a 2.5% commission on all purchases as an incentive.

For coordination purposes, a Project Management Committee chaired by Additional Chief Secretary was established to take an overview of the work, adherence to timelines, problem solving etc –
 eUparjan Monitoring and Evaluation.
 Provide technical and managerial support to district and field level units.
 Guiding the state officials for effective administration of the project.
 Management of Project Operations.
 Coordination and communication with stakeholders
 Financial Management and Planning.

(a) Strategies

 Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
 a.      What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
The focus of the eUparjan Project is to provide the benefit of remunerative prices to the farmer for his produce, and at the same time to procure food grains on a voluntary basis for the public distribution system.

The procurement procedures being adopted previously were prone to corruption and inefficiencies due to the massive scale of the operation, the geographical spread and remoteness of the locations, the lower level of literacy in the target group, and the vested interests that had developed. The lack of real-time reports on the on-going implementation greatly hindered the ability to take the best administrative decisions in time.

The solution grew out of the brainstorming at the leadership level of the Food and Civil Supplies Department, and its consultation with various stakeholders. The entire exercise was coordinated by the Additional Chief Secretary (Food), assisted by the Food Commissioner (Food Directorate), with the State Civil Supplies Corporation playing a major role. The other stakeholders involved institutions and agencies from the Agriculture and Cooperative Departments. The NIC and the IT Department played the key role in the development of the software application.

The “eUparjan System” has at its objectives: (1) Bringing transparency and efficiency to procurement of food grains at Minimum Support Price (MSP); (2) Developing a unified database of farmers of the state; (3) Ensuring speedy and transparent transfer of the MSP dues of the farmers directly into their accounts; (4) Streamlining the administrative operations under MSP procurement, developing near real-time reporting mechanisms at different levels and a decision support system for enhancing the forecasting, monitoring and tracking capabilities of the Department, covering purchase, packaging, transport and storage of 8.5 million tons of wheat and 1.5 million tons of paddy thus procured.

A Project Management Committee headed by Additional Chief Secretary (Food) spearheaded the project: conceptualize, strategize, monitor, guide, and drive the project at the policy level as well as coordinate at the inter-departmental level (since assistance of the Departments of Cooperation and Agriculture and Transport and IT was required).

A Project Plan was devised and clear directions were given to all the stakeholders mentioning their roles and responsibilities, and delegation of powers done, wherever feasible.
An Application Development Team was set up with NIC for software development, and continual tweaking and improvement as the situation unfolded.

2300 Co-operative societies were identified to manage the procurement centres, they were equipped with computer hardware, and provided the services of a data entry operator. DEOs and ‘runners’ were recruited on contractual basis.

Training was conducted for District officials to familiarize them with the procedures, and also 5,000 data entry operators, runners and Cooperative Society Managers. For this massive exercise, a ‘Training-of-Trainers’ strategy was adopted.

Regular Video Conference meetings were organized with the stakeholders in all the districts; avoiding cumbersome and time-consuming meetings during peak season., and field visits undertaken to monitor all the activities performed by the district officials and team members of the project.

A 24X7 Call Centre was established at State HQs to deal with inquiries/ complaints.

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
The key development and implementation steps were:
a. Project Management Committee headed by Additional Chief Secretary (Food) to conceptualize, strategize, monitor, guide, and drive the project at the policy level as well as coordinate at the inter-departmental level (since assistance of the Departments of Cooperation and Agriculture and Transport and IT was required).
b. The Additional Chief Secretary (Food) also dealt with the authorities at the political level, and led interaction with the media and public communication, for transparency and stakeholder involvement.
c. Project Plan was made keeping in-view all the aspects of the project.
d. Clear directions were given to all the stakeholders mentioning their roles and responsibilities, and delegation of powers done, wherever feasible.
e. Setting-up of Application Development Team in coordination with NIC for software development, and continual tweaking and improvement as the situation unfolded.
f. Deployment of Project Management Consultants to assist in project related activities during the course of the project.
g. Coordination with the Co-operative societies for the recruitment of runner and data entry operators required for the eUparjan System at the district level.
h. Conducting training for State and District officials to familiarize them with the procedures, and also 5,000 data entry operators, runners and Cooperative Society Managers. For this massive exercise, a ‘Training-of-Trainers’ strategy was adopted.
i. Regular Video Conference meetings with the stakeholders in all the districts; avoiding cumbersome and time-consuming meetings during peak season.
j. Regular coordination with all the hardware vendors to supply, install and commission the required hardware at all the procurement centers.
k. Regular field visits to monitor all the activities performed by the district officials and team members of the project.
l. Establishment of a 24X7 Call Centre at State HQs to deal with inquiries and complaints.

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
Some of the obstacles that were encountered during the implementation of the eUparjan System were:
o Dealing with not-so-literate farmers, unfamiliar with IT. This was overcome by a state-wide awareness campaign, encouraging farmers and explaining to them the benefits that IT could bring to them. Advertising was done in different forms through newspapers, pamphlets, user manuals, radio advertisements/ jingles, SMS etc. to make the farmers aware of the benefits or how the technology can help them in mitigating their problems. (Of course, the responsibility to deliver on promises increased enormously).
o Mobile telephone numbers were a key component of the eUparjan strategy. Only about two-third famers had a mobile phone in the family. We asked farmers to give us the numbers of their neighbors/friends or even the village headman, or anyone they trusted to convey messages to them.
o Wide geographical spread, and remote terrain with limited internet connectivity. This was solved by adopting a system of ‘runners’ for groups of four or five centres. The runners downloaded information on data cards twice a day, and travelled by motor cycle to the nearest internet kiosk and uploaded the information for near real time reporting.
o The data uploaded by runners was also used by the Cooperative banks for the bank transfer of the dues to be paid to the farmers’ accounts.
o Electricity problems; extra batteries for the laptop, and inverters were provided to the procurement centers. In some cases solar batteries were also provided.
o Training such a large number of personnel, both within the government, as well as 5,000 newly recruited data entry operators, runners and cooperative society managers; Training-of trainers approach was followed i.e. training is given for all the State and District officials at State and District and cooperative society level.
o Hardware procurement and installation at 2,300 procurement centers; Specifications were decided as per requirement; funds provided by the government; coordination with hardware vendors to supply, install and commission the required hardware at all the procurement centers.
o Constant interaction with district level officials (the State is divided into 50 districts) had to be weighed off against summoning them to State HQ for frequent meetings. This was solved through regular Video Conference meetings, as well as filed visits by top officials from the State capital, to monitor all the activities.
o Periodic shortages of packaging material; MIS reporting mechanism helped in forecasting and utilized to rationalize and mitigate shortages of the gunny bags.
o MIS reports also greatly helped in planning and monitoring transportation of food grains to warehouses and storage, all of which is a massive exercise in itself.
o Inquiries/complaints from farmers, dealt with by establishing a 24X7 call centre at State HQs, during the procurement season.

(d) Use of Resources

 d.      What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
The computerization of the procurement process involved:

Capital Cost: (Rs 150 million – USD 3 million)
• Procurement of hardware for 2,300 procurement centres (laptops, printers, extra batteries, and in some cases inverters and solar chargers)

Recurring Cost: (Rs 100 million – USD 2 million)
• Temporary employment of 2,300 data entry operators, 400 runners
• Training of some government personnel, as well as 5,000 data entry operators, runners and cooperative society managers.
• Advertising for awareness campaign
• SMS alerts to farmers
• Establishment of a 24X7 Call centre

The money was made available initially by the State government to the Department of Food and Civil Supplies. However, the Capital expenditure is seen as a one-time strengthening of agricultural cooperative societies, since the computers and printers will be used for their regular activities also, outside of the procurement seasons.

The Recurring expenditure is proposed to be partly recovered from the amount that the State Civil Supplies Corporation gets as commission from Govt of India/Food Corporation of India as administrative expenses for the food grains transferred to it for supply to other states. Partly, Govt of MP will continue to five the amount, since it is a miniscule amount compared to the total amount paid to farmers for the food grain purchased (USD 2.4 billion)

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
• The eUparjan system is fully transferable and replicable because of the simplicity and user-friendly interface developed which helps in the smooth operations of the food grains procurement process. Though it is developed in Hindi, it can easily be translated for use anywhere else. (Already delegations from four other States in India have visited us to study the system).

• The eUparjan System is culture neutral as it caters to all sections of the society with an aspiration to serve all the cultures and section of the people.

• The total eUparjan Cost incurred was Rs. 250 Million (Rs. 150 Million: Capital expenditure + Rs. 100 Million: Recurring expenses).

• The Capital expenditure is one-time expenditure which was spent to buy the computers and other peripherals for the cooperative societies involved in procurement operations. These will be used not only for the procurement process but also for the normal working of the agricultural cooperative societies thus making them more technology friendly and spread awareness in the interiors/ remote areas.

• The recurring expense works out to little more than a rupee (2 cents) per 100 kg of wheat purchased at Rs 1385 (28 USD). 2 cents out of 28 dollars is a miniscule fraction for a much more efficient and transparent system, and the government is fully committed to continuing with the system.

• The eUparjan initiative was started initially for the Rabi Procurement Season (wheat); but it didn’t stop there. The same application has been replicated with further improvements/ innovations (such as sending a confirmatory SMS to farmers on the transfer of payment into their bank accounts) for the Kharif (Paddy) Procurement Season, which is on-going at present.

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
The eUparjan initiative was conceived, developed, and implemented by the Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection, Government of Madhya Pradesh. The principal impacts of the project included:
• Near-elimination of corruption and malpractices existing in the procurement processes.
• Gaining the trust and confidence of farmers through simplification of procedures and transparency of operations, from ‘purchase to payment’ that enormously improved the satisfaction level.
• Ensuring that farmers received a remunerative Minimum Support Price (MSP) for their food grains, and saving them from the clutches
• Reduction of waiting time for farmers at procurement centres from several days to a few hours, through the unique SMS alert system
• Prompt and full payment to farmers, through direct bank transfer.
• Increased efficiency and effectiveness of the outcomes.
• Better quality of foodgrains available for the Public Distribution System. Quality assurance arrangements at procurement centres; and due to quick and efficient procurement, food grains were not left in the open on the road side, thus reducing foreign matter and pebbles etc.
• Larger quantity of food grains available for the Public Distribution System: sale of food grains to the government is an entirely voluntary process. Due to earlier inefficiencies and corruption most farmers preferred to sell their wheat to middles men at lower prices than the MSP, because they ere not in any case getting MSP. Thus the maximum wheat procured till the previous year was 4.9 million tons, from arounf 0.6 million farmers. Due to the corruption-free and more efficient eUparjan process, the procured quantity of wheat shot up dramatically to 8.5 million tons from 1.1 million farmers. The lower average purchase also indicates that a larger number of small and marginal farmers also availed of the benefits of support price, which earlier tended to go mostly to larger farmers.
• Better Decision Support System – a variety of MIS and dashboard reports and system generated orders and receipts enable policy decisions for procurement, payment, packaging, transport, storage and re-deployment of personnel as required.
• Unified database of genuine farmers created with information that can be used by other departments of government engaged in economic and social development schemes.
• Centralized Monitoring and Tracking –“ digital trail” enables monitoring during implementation as well as tracking and evaluation post-implementation, including inquiring into complaints.
• E-Capacity Enhanced – both, of government officials, as well as of agricultural cooperatives and grass-root level institutions.
• Digital Inclusion – some 1.5 million farmers become aware of what information technology can do for them, and get more familiar with processes such as registration, use of SMS, getting computerized receipts, bank transfer of money etc.
• Expectedly there was resistance from vested interests in the beginning, and the idea was pooh-poohed. But strong political will of the government and the success of the endeavour has silenced the vested interest criticism and cynicism against use of IT, and a political consensus now has evolved in support of IT, even when it requires involvement of the poorest sections of society.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection, Govt of Madhya Pradesh
Institution Type:   Government Department  
Contact Person:   Anthony de Sa
Title:   Mr.  
Telephone/ Fax:   +91 (755) 2441675, +91 - 9425981818
Institution's / Project's Website:   http://mpeuparjan.nic.in/
E-mail:   anthonydesa.ias@gmail.com  
Address:   Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Madhya Pradesh Department of Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Protection
Postal Code:   462004
City:   Bhopal
State/Province:   Madhya Pradesh
Country:   India

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