A Year after venturing into the business of cellphones and insurance, farmers’ marketing co-operative, Gujarat Co-operative Society Marketing Ltd (Gujcomasol), has decided to go back to what it does best— selling seeds, fertilisers and farm products.

Its experiment where it tied up with corporates to sell mobile phones, Sim cards and insurance products to farmers failed to achieve good results as they eyed to tap the rural markets through the farmers’ co-operative in Gujarat. Gujcomasol had joined hands with the IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited (IKSL), a joint venture of the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) and Bharti Airtel Ltd.

On offer were mobile telephony and mobile Internet with handsets specially designed for the rural market. It introduced farmer-related services, including updates on crop, weather, and prices of commodities. Airtel was using IKSL as a vehicle to reach the rural masses. But within a year, the tie up could fetch business worth Rs 2 crore only even though Gujcamasol has a customer base of 2.9 lakh.

Manoj Patel, in-charge CEO, Gujcomasol, said: “We didn’t have expertise of mobile handsets and handling of the various schemes. New schemes were being launched every 24 hours and we were not able to keep up with the pace. Therefore, we decided to stop marketing them.”

The Rs 1,500-crore co-operative marketing giant is now planning to sell only agricultural products. “We want to focus on selling agriculture products, which is our strength. We think we don’t have the expertise to sell non-agriculture products,” Patel added.

... contd.