E-purjee and its implementation

in Bangladesh

Prepared for:
Md. Ziaul Haque
Lecturer
East West University

Prepared by:
Md. Abu Sufian

Date of Submission:
02 March 2011

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 Letter of Transmittal

02 March 2011
Md. Ziaul Haque
Lecturer
East West University

Sub: Request for evaluating the assignment on E-purjee.

Dear Sir:
Here is the assignment on the E-purjee and its implementation that you asked to submit.
Our study on E-purjee basically shows how purjee process changes the delivery process
of sugarcans. You will see that after the implementation of purjee, farmers can deliver
sugarcanes in mills timely after getting s.m.s.

We are thankful to you for giving the chance to us of researching on E-purjee.

Sincerely yours,
Md. Abu Sufian
Students of East West University

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 Table of contents

Sl no. Topic Page no.

1. Introduction 4, 5

2. History and background 6, 7

3. Present condition 8, 9

4. Problems of present condition 10

5. Prospects of E-purjee 10

6. Recomendation 11

7. Conclution 12

8. Reference 13

Introduction

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 Basically the order of buying the sugarcanes from the farmers is called purjee. The
sugar mill corporate sends purjee to the sugarcane growers in line with the course of
action after the crushing process. Between three days from the moment the purjee is
issued at the sugar mill, the farmers have to deliver the estimated quantity of sugarcanes
to the different purchasing centre of the sugar mill. Now this time 1200 to 1400
sugarcanes can be delivered in a single purjee. The purjee contains the basic information
of the sugarcane growers, such as name, address, passbook number, name of the unit and
center, date of the delivery and the amount of the sugarcanes. This purjee system was
introduces long before 1971 and since then, purjee has been issued in this manner.

By mobile s.m.s at By s.m.s after Because of getting

first farmers get the
deliver information
of purjee.
getting the deliver s.m.s farmers can
information of deliver sugarcanes in
purjee, farmers can mills timely.
start necessary
process for deliver
sugarcanes.

Fig: Process of getting order and deliver of purjee.

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 The moment the purjee is issued, the visibility in the mobile phones of the farmers
through the software of the sugar mills instantly is the e-purjee. In other words, to deliver
the information concerning purjee using the information technology is known as e-purjee.
Similar to the previous purjee system, e-purjee also contains the basic information of the
sugarcane growers such as name, address, passbook no, name of the unit and center, date
of the delivery and the amount of the sugarcanes. The difference is that, in the e-purjee
service the purjee is sent to the sugarcane growers through the SMS based mobile service
from the server of the sugar mills, where all the information of the farmers (name, mobile
phone number, quantity of sugarcane, passbook number, name of the unit and the centre).
Formerly, it took one or two days for the farmers to receive the purjee. Even in some
cases, the purjee reached in the farmer's hands after the validity of the purjee was over,
whereas in the prevailing e-purjee system, the farmers are notified instantly about the
purjee issuance. Moreover, through the e-purjee service, it is now possible to inform the
farmers about the payment of the sugarcanes as well.

The E- purjee system got south Asian Recognition also. It got the manthan award,
which recognizes technology solution and empowerment. It brought honor for
Bangladesh in South Asian region through this award. And the award was received on
Along with this; it has also achieved the national award in the e-inclusion and livelihood
category, in the "ICT award for e-content and development-2010". D-net, a private
corporation for development organized this award program in assistance with the
Ministry of Science, Information and Communication Technology.

Background and History:

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E-purjee is one of the essential steps of making our country digital which is the
vision of Bangladesh. 17th November, 2009 is a important day for the
implementation of this process. After this step farmers are getting the purjee
through SMS based mobile service issued on their name. The misery the farmers
had to endure regarding purjee is a long, known-to-all history. To reduce the
sufferings of the farmers Access to Information (A2I) Programme at the Prime
Minister's Office along with and funded by Bangladesh Sugar and Food
Industries Corporation (BSFIC) under the Ministry of Industries and UNDP,
started the pilot project of e-purjee at the Faridpur and Moarakganj Sugar Mills.

Basically the purjee contains the basic information of the sugarcane growers’ e.g.
name, address, passbook no, name of the unit and center, date of the delivery
and the amount of the sugarcanes. Before 1971, the purjee system was
introduced and since then the authority in charge of the sugar mills have been
issuing a hand-written purjee to facilitate buying the sugarcanes from the
farmers. This traditional system caused many difficulties to the sugarcane
growers. Among those difficulties one of the major problem is purjee does not
reach to the farmers in time, none of the important information can be sent to the
farmers. This result farmers and sugar Mill Corporation both are facing problems.
The sugar mill corporation must have to purchase sugarcane in the decided price
of the Government. Moreover, if the farmer is a listed one, he is assured to have
the loan without any interest and also he is given fertilizers, irrigating elements,
pesticides, productive seedlings etc. As the relationship of the sugar mill
corporation with the farmers is related, so any problem of the sugarcane growers
is ultimately a problem of the nation's sugar industries.

For established the vision of our country the government has been taking various
projects such as agriculture, education, healthcare, administration and so on. In
addition to this, the Prime Minister's Office assigned different Secretaries to mark
a 'quick win' e-service/ project each which could be implicated within a year. The
Chief Minister of the Ministry of Industries selected the SMS based digital purjee
service as a quick win. Since then, after various meeting and assessment gazing

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at the possibilities of success, the pilot project of e-purjee service was implicated
in the Faridpur and Mobarkganj sugar mills. After the massive success of the
pilot project, according to the instruction of the honorable Prime Minister, in the
crushing season, the e-purjee service has been implicated in the rest of the
thirteen sugar mills (Panchagar, Thakurgan, Shetabganj, Shampur, Rangpur,
Jaypurhat, Jillbangla, Rajshahi, Nator, North Bengal, Kushtia, Keru & Co. and
Pabna sugar mill).

Important Milestones of the e-purjee project:

• August, 2008 - Idea sharing and Project Data Sheet (PDS) preparation
• October, 2008 - MOU signing for Piloting at two sugar mills
• July, 2009 - Field level workshops and exchange views with stakeholder
• June to August, 2009 - Growers data collection
• July to Sep, 2009 - Software requirement study, analysis, design,
development, testing and installation
• Sep, 2009 - Field level trainers team formation for growers training
(Service recipient)
• Sep to Oct, 2009 - Training for the Trainers Teams (TOT)
• Oct, 2009 - Conducting growers meeting at each center by the Teams
• Sep to Oct, 2009 - Training to the system user and data entry operators
at Sugar Mill end.
• Sep to Oct, 2009 - Growers Data entry
• November to January, 2010 - Starting project operation and running till
end of the crashing season
• March, 2010 - Impact analysis
• June, 2010 - Govt. (BSFIC) ownership and up scaling decision
• July to Present Date - Implementation of the same system at all Sugar Mills in
Bangladesh by BSFIC

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 E-Purjee Implemented procedures

Prime minister of our country has given order to the rest mills of sugar to implement
the e- purjee system after the implement of pilot project. The implementation process was
helped by Access to information program (A21) technically and UNDP financially in
Prime minister office. To start the e- purjee system smoothly different task is being done.
Such as raising inspiration among the farmer, different workshops, Training of Trainers
(ToT), other trainings, necessary hardware and software installation, etc. The farmers
ware divided into different unit and groups in different zones, under each sugar mill. The
separation was done to help farmers to make them work properly. There are 80 to 120
units under each sugar mill. To supervise a unit there is cane development assistant
(CDA). In each unit there are 100 to 200 farmers. A center is constructed by two or tree
units. A center in charge performs all administrative works. The centers and units are
important for e-purjee system, as in each centers the process of buying and selling are
done.

A workshop was arranged before implementing the e- purjee system in each sugar
mill. “In these workshops, high-ranked officials from the Bangladesh Sugar and Food
Industries Corporation (BSFIC), officials from the local sugar mill, the sugarcane
growers, leader of the farmers, CDA, Centre-in-charge and lots of other people were
present. The benefits of e-purjee service, the sufferings of the traditional purjee system,
and the vision of the Govt. etc. are presented to the farmers in light of the success of last
year’s pilot project in the two sugar mills.” The benefited farmers described to those who
did not take the system yet, to give inspiration to them.

To ensure that farmers get the proper knowledge about e- purjee, training of trainer
has been arranged. “A CDA and a leader of the farmers are trained from each unit to
concern all the sugarcane growers about the e-purjee service, the meaning of the SMS,
what to do after receiving the SMS, how to be sure f its being from the sugar mill, what
information are provided in the SMS and so forth.”(Ref). Then the CDA trained each
farmers of his center to provide all required knowledge about e-purjee and inspired all

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farmers to take this service. The A21 and BSFIC helped a jointly to train the farmers by
dividing the farmers into different teams. Totally about 1.5 lac farmers was trained for
using the e-pujee system in whole country. “The General Manager (extended) of
Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation, Mr. Amzad Hossain stating his
experience at the field level said, "We provided training to all the members of the 80
teams of the 80 units of the 11 sub-districts in the districts of Faridpur, Rajbari, Magura
and Gopalganj. In addition, we also distributed leaflets in all the houses and put banners
and posters in places which added to its charm in the public".

Every sugar mill of our country has a server now. All facility such as, computer,
printer, scanner, internet service was provided to build server in each sugar mill. To run
the hardware, software was installed. In Prime Minister Office the hardware was given by
A21 and the software was developed by A21’s web developer Mr. Monirul Islam. “After
the successful set up of the server, all the relevant information of the enlisted farmers
(e.g. name, address, name of the unit, name of the centre, mobile number, quantity of the
cultivated sugarcane, passbook number, etc.) was saved in the server” (Ref). Three
operators were appointed in each sugar mill to do administrative works. The operators
was trained is such a way, as they can perform their task, notify farmers and delivering
them important information’s about e-purjee.

Mr. Forhad Zahid was the team leader of E-Purjee system implementation and A21
program. He is the one who directed the all program of this system such as, ToT,
workshops etc. The key planer of the e-purjee system and implementation was Md.
Iyahiya Mia, Director of the BSFIC (sugarcane and research). “About the initiative of the
e-purjee sevice he says, "The farmers had to suffer a lot in the traditional purjee system.
Both the farmers and the sugar mill corporation had to undergo the losses. Regarding that
we have been thinking what could be done to ensure the purjee to the farmers in an easier
way. The entire world is developing smoothly using the Information technology, so the
thought of solving the matter through SMS based mobile service to send purjee rang a
bell and we started to work on it”.
Problems of present condition

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 Besides the advantages of E-purjee there are also exist some problem. These are:

• Some farmers do not know English. Which result they are facing problem to read
the E- purjee s.m.s.
• Mobile set is now not much available in village, but in order to get E- purjee
confirmation s.m.s. they need a mobile set.
• Network is not strong in village, which can creates problem where E-purjee is
implemented.
• Most of the farmers in villages are not familiar with mobile functions.
• Insufficient of electricity is a problem for maintaining the network in village.

Prospects of E-Purjee

By using E-purjee farmers as well as mill industries can change their future. Some basic
prospects of e-purjee are given below:

 By using E-purjee in future Farmers don’t have to wait for purjee. They continue
their normal work and then when they get sms they just deliver sugarcanes.
 Their remains no uncertainty that purjee will not reach to each farmers. Because
in purjee system farmers get the purjee directly to themselves, but previously they
got it through naibours or others farmers.
 Farmers get their money properly. As they get the notification of payment through
s.m.s. then go to mills.
 The time for the purjee in E-purjee system is very less.
 Farmers get enough time to cultivate canes, as they get purjee before 3 days of
delivering, where previous days it would not happened.

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 Recommendation

By considering the present condition of E-Purjee we can say that it is giving lots of
benefit to farmers. But it has some obstruction to overcome. So in the Conclusion part I
would give some suggestions, which can be taken by the developers of e-purjee system.
These are mentioned below:

 Government can give financial help to each farmer for buying mobile with sim
connection.
 The “gonoshikhha karjokrom” can be implemented for the farmer of sugarcane
for doing their work in collaboration with sugar mills.
 Telecommunications and network provider should be ordered to improve
network to that area, where the sugar and sugarcane production are done.
 The S.M.S. can be sent in Bangla form.

Complementary assets, such as, delivery trucks, machinery etc can be provided to
farmers to make the purjee system more efficient.

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 Conclusion

The seventh Manthan award that recognizes best technology solutions across South Asia

for empowerment of the masses were announced on Saturday (18th Dec). The award was
given out in fifteen categories this year including e-agriculture & livelihood, e-health, e-
culture & heritage and e-governance.

“Manthan Award 2010 has received over 450 nominations spread across 15 categories.
This year has seen a phenomenal rise in nominations from Bangladesh compared to its
contributions in 2009,” said Osama Manzar, chairman of Manthan Award.

The award was given at a colorful function held in New Delhi on December 17-18, 2010.

The organizations received the award are Information-Tori of Care Bangladesh in

Bangladesh e-business category and enterprise category and disaster forecast through
mobile of Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme (CDMP) and ship breaking
industry in e-environment category.

Besides, the country’s nine initiatives including digital purjee management of Bangladesh
Sugar and Food Industries Corporation (BSFIC) as well as Health Ministry’s mobile
healthcare services received other special awards.

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 References

Digital Bangladesh,

URL: http://www.digitalbangladesh.gov.bd/blog.php?ID=465
Accessed:1 March, 2011.

Digital Bangladesh,

URL: http://www.digitalbangladesh.gov.bd/content.php?CID=6
Accessed:1 March, 2011.

Digital Bangladesh,
URL: http://www.digitalbangladesh.gov.bd/blog.php?ID=452
Accessed:1 March, 2011.

Digital Bangladesh,
URL: http://www.digitalbangladesh.gov.bd/blog.php?ID=162
Accessed:1 March, 2011.

Digital Bangladesh,
URL: http://www.digitalbangladesh.gov.bd/blog.php?ID=462
Accessed:1 March, 2011.

Financial Express
URL: http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/more.php?news_id=122603
Accessed:3 March, 2011.

News Today
URL: http://www.newstoday.com.bd/?option=details&news_id=17360&date=2011-01-
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Accessed:3 March, 2011.

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