Page 83 - SAMENA Trends - June-July 2020

REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Farmers Going Digital in Sri Lanka with Govipola

Sri Lanka has been under lockdown for the trend and overnight, equipped their and buyers. However, with the uncertainty
over 50 days now. With the number of operations and personnel to work digitally. of the spread of the pandemic and the lack
cases close to 870, we do not know when Can the agricultural sector do the same? of a vaccine in close sight, going back
normalcy will return. If we’re daily wage Yes it can! Your solution is Govipola. to a crowded, claustrophobic economic
earners or if our job security is threatened, Govipola, the website and app, is an online center is an absolute risk. One vendor
we are at the deep end of the chaos. The trading platform connecting buyers and contaminating the virus is enough to
same applies to farmers who’ve had sellers digitally. It gives farmers and buyers spread it to hundreds. This is exactly why
to adjust to a “new normal”. When the access to communicate, negotiate and platforms like Govipola are important now,
government announced the curfew on provides transparency to operate freely in more than ever! Govipola almost allows
the 27th of March, they were careful to a digital market. Govipola allows farmers contactless transactions. The ability to
note that “Paddy farming and plantation, and buyers to advertise and list what they list your product online, negotiate prices
including work on tea smallholdings and are buying or selling on the platform. With over the phone, and arrange transport and
fishing activities, are permitted in any over 36,000 downloads across the country, payment digitally means that you have
district”. This is because our farmers the app is fast becoming an essential to very limited interaction with the other party,
and our land feeds our nation. However, most farmers and buyers. Logeswaran can reducing the risk of you contaminating the
continuing operations as usual has been now list his yield on the website and be virus. Its time to modernize agriculture
a tough task. Logeswaran, a 57-year-old guaranteed a sale. He doesn’t have to go with digital tools. The solution Govipola,
farmer from Nuwaraeliya, has struggled to through the hassle of taking his produce is already here. Hundreds of farmers and
make ends meet over the last two months. to an economic center, bargaining, and buyers have tried, tested and recommended
His small vegetable patch was handed wasting his time negotiating a sale. At the the app and it’s time for you to join us too.
over to him by his father, who got it, from click of a button, he can now advertise his Think about the future of your business
his. This patch of land has yielded their produce, coordinate with an interested and your operations. If not COVID-19,
family income for years, if not decades. buyer and arrange for payment and pick up - something else will threaten the existence
Over the past two months, activity has virtually! A few weeks ago, the Government of your livelihood soon. You cannot afford
come to a grinding halt. With economic of Sri Lanka released interim guidelines to close operations for a couple of months
centers closing down operations due to that Economic Centers would have to and resume again, without burdening
safety concerns, Logeswaran has had adopt, once they resume operations. The exorbitant costs. Choose wisely, choose
no means of selling his produce. His two exhaustive list of guidelines is meant to Govipola. Our support staff is available on
trustee farmers who help him on the field protect the health and safety of farmers 076 212 1000 to assist you!
cannot report to work either, as public
transport systems are closed too. The
risk COVID-19 presents to farmers like
Logeswaran are more than just health
concerns. His income and his livelihood
are threatened. The level of insecurity
and jeopardy created by the ongoing
pandemic to farmers and the agricultural
sector raises very important concerns. It
makes you question the structures and
rules the sector is dependent on. If it is as
susceptible as this to fragility and risk, It is
time we rethink our usual order of business.
“Doing things digitally” is almost the new
slogan gaining its well overdue fame
amidst the pandemic. Running businesses
remotely rely heavily on the ability to
run your operations digitally. Small and
big businesses seem to have embraced

83 JUNE-JULY 2020