A Research on Bridging Farmers and Consumers with FarmKart: A Firebase-Powered Android App

Abstract

This paper presents a review of FarmKart, a mobile application designed to create a direct link between farmers and consumers, thereby eliminating intermediaries, improving market access, and ensuring fair pricing. Developed using Kotlin for Android with Firebase and Firestore as backend technologies, the app offers a seamless digital marketplace for agricultural products. The platform not only empowers farmers by offering better visibility for their produce but also benefits consumers with fresh goods at fair prices. This review outlines the technological foundations, development methodology, features, and broader social and economic implications of such a solution, highlighting its potential in promoting sustainable agriculture, rural digitization, and food security.

Introduction

FarmKart is an Android app developed to address challenges faced by farmers in developing economies, such as market exploitation, lack of transparency, and limited buyer access. It digitizes the agricultural supply chain, enabling direct trade between farmers and consumers using modern technologies like Kotlin and Firebase for secure, real-time operations.

The app features distinct user roles for farmers and consumers, secure authentication, product uploads, order management, chat support, location tagging, and feedback systems to build trust. It aims to reduce middlemen, increase farmer profits, and offer consumers fresh, fairly priced produce.

Literature supports digital platforms as effective tools for improving agricultural market efficiency and farmer income. FarmKart was developed using a user-centric, agile approach and tested in both urban and rural environments, showing good usability and performance.

Limitations include internet dependence and low adoption among less tech-savvy farmers, which future updates aim to address through multilingual support, AI-based price forecasting, logistics integration, offline capabilities, and blockchain for transparent transactions. The app holds promise for rural empowerment, supply chain transparency, and policy integration.

Conclusion

FarmKart demonstrates how modern mobile and cloud technologies can be leveraged to address long-standing inefficiencies in the agricultural marketplace. By facilitating direct interaction between farmers and consumers, this app not only enhances economic outcomes for both parties but also paves the way for a more transparent, inclusive, and tech-enabled agricultural economy.

References

[1] Singh, S., & Singla, S. (2019). E-commerce in Agriculture: A Study on Scope and Challenges. Int. Journal of Agricultural Economics & Rural Development, 7(2), 45–52. [2] Kumar, R., & Babu, S. C. (2021). Digital Platforms and Agricultural Supply Chains: A Case Study of Farmer-to-Consumer Marketplaces. Journal of Agribusiness and Rural Development, 58(3), 112–130. [3] Narayanan, S. (2019). Farmers’ Producer Companies in India: A Review of Performance and Potential. Economic & Political Weekly, 54(20), 34–41. [4] FAO. (2022). E-commerce in Agriculture: Opportunities and Challenges. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. [5] World Bank. (2020). Transforming Agri-Food Supply Chains through Digital Innovation.

Copyright

Copyright © 2025 Lilesh Lahre, Aastha Sahu, Aastha Tripathi. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.