Mysuru: Agriculture Price Commission Chairman Dr. T.N. Prakash Kammardi,  said that the advance estimated price for 26 crops for the year 2018 will be announced online on Jan.1.

He was addressing a press conference at the Government  Guest House here on Dec.29 and said that the advance estimated price of paddy, ragi, groundnut, green gram, soya, avare (field beans), cotton, tomato, onion, mango, coconut, grapes, arecanut, ginger, cardamom and other items will be announced online six months in advance.

Scientific methods will be used and an agreement has been signed with Microsoft to use their software.

This software will read what was the price fixed earlier and what would be the price in the next six months, he said.

However, the prices will hold good only for those crops that are ready to be transported and the farmers can check the estimated price and sell their crops. In the next six months paddy, ragi, green gram, cotton will fetch good price but the prices of groundnut, pigeon pea, and corn is likely to come  down, he said.

The assistance of six Universities have been sought for this exercise, where centres will be opened for the farmers and pamphlets containing the details will be distributed to them. However, all these information will also be available online in Kannada too, he said.

According to Dr. Kammardi, Karnataka was the first State in the Country to set up the Agriculture Price Commission and eight other States are following it. GST and demonetisation are the main reasons for the prices crashing. The traders are finding it difficult to save money. Hence, the Government has come forward to buy the crops, he said.

In 2015-16 the Government had purchased ragi at Rs. 2,300 per quintal, 32 lakh quintal green gram at Rs.5,500 per quintal, two lakh quintal of arecanut at Rs. 27,000 a quintal. Stress is also being laid on millets and organic farming, he said.