What is Paat Mitro?

About Paat Mitro

• It is a mobile application developed by the Jute Corporation of India Limited (JCI).
• Purpose: To provide important information about Minimum Support Prices (MSP) and agronomy to jute farmers.
• Features:
  • It is available in six languages.
  • All the functionalities are made available to the users free of cost.
  • In addition to the latest agronomic practices and MSP, Jute Gradation Parameters, Farmer-centric schemes like ‘Jute-ICARE’, weather forecasts, JCI’s Purchase Centers’ locations, and Procurement Policies are also made available in the app.
  • Farmers will also be able to track the status of their payments for the raw jute sold to JCI under MSP Operation.
  • Latest technology feature like Chatbot is included for their queries.

Key Facts about Jute Corporation of India Limited (JCI)

• It was set up in 1971 as an official agency by the Government of India with the aim to provide minimum support price (MSP) to jute cultivators.
• It is the implementing agency of various projects of the Government of India for the enhancement and betterment of the Jute crop and the lives of Jute growers.
• It is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Textiles.
• It spread in 7 states which are eminent for jute growing in India, including West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Orissa, and Andhra Pradesh.
• It has been provided with an authorised and paid-up capital of Rs. 5 crore.
• As per the policy decision of the Government, JCI is obliged to buy whatever quantity of jute is offered at support rates by the growers without any quantitative limit. 
• The losses incurred by the JCI while implementing policy are to be reimbursed by the Government of India. 

Q1) What is Jute?

Known as the ‘golden fibre’ jute is one of the longest and most used natural fibre for various textile applications.Jute is extracted from the bark of the white jute plant (Corchorus capsularis) and to a lesser extent from tossa jute (C. olitorius). It is a natural fibre with golden and silky shine and hence called the Golden Fibre. Jute is an annual crop taking about 120 days (April/May-July/August) to grow.

Source: Ministry of Textiles launches “Paat-Mitro” application to facilitate jute farmers