Pakistani Mandi Glossary

An adhati is a commission agent in a Pakistani mandi who acts as the middleman between a farmer (seller) and a beopari (buyer). The adhati earns a percentage commission — called arhat — on every lot they facilitate. The role combines selling, weighing, receivables collection, and dispute resolution at the mandi gate. Punjab alone has roughly 233 notified mandis (Punjab Agriculture Policy 2018) and the adhati is the central operator in each.

A grain or produce trader who buys lots from adhatis at one mandi and resells them — to mills, exporters, retail markets, or other mandis — at a margin. Beoparis often operate across multiple mandis, manage transport, and track profit per lot rather than commission.

The grower who produces the crop and brings it to mandi via tractor-trolley, truck, or own vehicle. The kissan is the original seller in the chain — they hand the lot over to the adhati on consignment, who then sells it via boli (auction) to a beopari. Pakistan has ~7 million farming households (Agriculture Census, PBS) and most still sell through mandi adhatis rather than direct contracts.

The accountant or clerk who maintains the adhati's khata (ledger) — traditionally a person with a bound paper register, today a person operating Pakka Khata or similar software. The munshi enters lots, calculates arhat, issues parchis, and tracks farmer/buyer balances.

The mandi loader/labourer who carries sacks from trucks to the auction floor and back to the buyer's transport. Palledars typically work for a daily wage plus per-bag piece rate. Their fees are sometimes deducted from the kissan's settlement under 'palledari' or counted under the broader kaat.

A small-scale middleman who introduces buyers and sellers in the mandi without taking ownership or maintaining a full khata. The dalal earns a finder's-fee per deal rather than a commission rate. In some mandi traditions 'dalal' is used interchangeably with 'arhti', but in modern Pakistani usage the dalal is the smaller, informal broker.

Two distinct adhati models in Pakistani mandis. A kacha arhti only brokers the sale and earns arhat commission — no inventory risk. A pakka arhti also buys lots on their own account and resells, taking inventory risk for a larger margin. Most Pakistani mandi operations are kacha; pakka adhatis are more common in cotton, dates and dry-fruit verticals.

The khareedar is the buyer in a mandi transaction — usually a beopari, mill, exporter, or retailer purchasing a lot from the adhati. In the kacha-arhti model the khareedar pays the gross amount to the adhati, who then settles the farmer after deductions. A buyer's reliability (do they pay on time?) is tracked in the adhati's khata.

The bechak is the seller — most often the kissan (farmer) whose lot the adhati auctions, but it can also be a beopari reselling stock. The bechak hands the lot to the adhati, who sells it to khareedars and settles the bechak after deductions. In the kacha-arhti model the bechak bears the seller-side charges (arhat, bardana, tulai).

The percentage commission an adhati charges on the sale value of every lot — typically 1.5% to 2.5% depending on crop, party, and mandi convention. Arhat is calculated on the gross sale amount BEFORE bardana and other deductions, then split between buyer-side and farmer-side as per local custom. Pakka Khata computes both sides automatically based on a rule set per crop, party and season.

The empty gunny bag (jute, polypropylene PP, or PP-laminated) used to hold grain. The weight of bardana — typically 0.5 to 1.5 kg per bag — is deducted from the gross lot weight to calculate the net grain weight. Per-bag deduction rules vary by mandi, crop, and bag type, which makes manual tracking error-prone. Pakka Khata's Bardana module sets the rule once and applies it to every lot automatically.

An umbrella term for all weight/quality deductions applied during a lot transaction. Includes bardana (bag weight), nami (moisture), mitti (dirt/foreign matter), and grade-based deductions. Each kaat reduces the net payable weight to the farmer. In disputes, kaat is the single biggest source of friction — which is why Pakka Khata shows every kaat itemised on the digital parchi.

Moisture-content deduction. If a crop has higher-than-standard moisture (e.g., paddy at 18% vs the 14% target), a per-percent deduction is applied to the weight to compensate for water that will be lost during drying. Measured with a moisture meter (mostly Kett or AgraTronix in Pakistani mandis).

Foreign-matter deduction — the percentage of dust, stones, broken grain, husk, or other impurities in a lot. Measured by sample sieving or visual grading. Deducted from the net payable weight, separately from nami and bardana.

The weighing fee charged by the mandi or the weighbridge (kanda) operator for measuring a lot. Usually a fixed amount per truck or per 100 kg, paid by the buyer or split per local convention.

The difference between a beopari's sale price (to mill/exporter/retail) and their purchase price (from adhati) — minus arhat, bardana, transport, and other costs. This is the beopari's real net profit per lot, separate from the adhati's commission. Pakka Khata's Trading Deal feature surfaces spread per lot so beoparis can see real margins instead of guessing.

Two milk-quality metrics used in dairy pricing. FAT is the percentage of butterfat (higher fat = higher price). LR is the lactometer reading (a measure of total solids — non-fat). Dairy centers price each kilogram of milk by a FAT × LR formula configured per farmer.

Daam is the per-unit price at which a lot trades in the mandi — quoted per maund, per 40 kg, or per kg depending on the crop. It is discovered by open auction (boli) and depends on quality, grade, moisture, supply, and season. Daam × quantity gives the gross lot value before any deductions.

Mahandi is the advance an adhati gives a fruit or vegetable grower before harvest, in return for the grower consigning their crop to that adhati when it is ready. It binds the kissan to sell through that adhati, who recovers the advance from the sale proceeds and earns arhat on the lot. Mahandi is common in mango, kinnow and vegetable belts where growers need cash for inputs early in the season, well before the daam is set at boli.

Kachra is the waste/spoilage deduction on perishable fruit and vegetables — the rotten, crushed, over-ripe or unsellable portion of a lot that is removed before settling the daam. It is the fruit/veg counterpart of grain's kaat (which is mostly bardana, nami and mitti). Because sabzi like tomato and leafy greens spoil fast in transit and at the mandi, kachra can be a meaningful percentage, so it is shown on the parchi to keep the kissan's settlement transparent.

Grade is the A/B/C quality classification of fruit (and some vegetables) that sets the daam in the mandi. Grade A is the best — large, well-coloured, ripe and undamaged — and fetches the top price; Grade B is mid-quality for general sale; Grade C is small, blemished or over-ripe and sells cheap for juice or local consumption. A single lot of mango or kinnow is often split into A/B/C and each grade is auctioned at a different daam.

A single consignment of produce brought to mandi by a farmer — typically one trolley, truck, or batch of bags. The lot is the basic unit of mandi accounting: it has a unique number, farmer name, crop, weight, grade, and rate. Lots are tracked from gate-in to sale-out and a beopari's profit is measured per-lot, not per-day.

The unique identifier painted, stencilled, or stickered onto a lot's bags — typically the farmer's name initials, date, and a sequence number. Marka identifies the lot from gate-in through auction, weighing, and dispatch. Cold storages reuse the marka to track which lot belongs to which client per chamber.

An individually-temperature-controlled room inside a cold storage facility, used to store seasonal produce — potatoes, onions, apples, kinnow — for 3–12 months. A large Pakistani cold storage typically has 8–24 chambers, each holding 10,000–30,000 bags. Pakka Khata's Cold Storage module tracks every bag's chamber, owner, in-date, and projected out-date.

A document — handwritten or printed — that authorizes a lot to leave the mandi premises (or cold storage) after sale. Includes vehicle number, buyer name, quantity, time stamp, and authorizing signature/stamp. Disputes at the gate are common when gate passes are paper-based and illegible — which is why a printable, QR-verified digital gate pass is one of Pakka Khata's most-used features.

A combined purchase + sale transaction recorded as a single deal — the adhati or beopari buys a lot from one party and sells it to another in one workflow. Pakka Khata's Trading Deal feature auto-calculates spread, splits payments, and tracks both party balances separately.

The open-outcry auction held in mandi where multiple buyers bid for a lot. The adhati conducts the auction, and the highest bid wins. Boli is the traditional Pakistani equivalent of an open market price-discovery mechanism. Most Punjab grain mandis run boli daily at 7–9 AM.

Literally 'till' — the cash drawer or daily cash position of a mandi business. Daily 'galla' tracking is the practice of reconciling cash-in vs cash-out at end of day. Pakka Khata's Cash Book records every entry so you know exact galla every evening.

Pakistani vernacular for cheating in a mandi transaction — most commonly under-weighing on the kanda, over-stating moisture/dirt deductions, fake bag counts, or padded bardana weight. Thuggi is the single biggest reason farmers prefer one adhati over another. Digital, itemised parchis eliminate most thuggi vectors because the math is visible to the farmer.

A grain-specific mandi where wheat, rice, maize, gram, lentils, and other staple grains are traded in bulk. The largest grain mandis in Pakistan are in Faisalabad, Multan, Lahore, and Sahiwal.

A vegetable-specific mandi with daily auctions of fresh produce — onions, potatoes, tomatoes, gourds, leafy greens, and seasonal vegetables. Lahore's Badami Bagh, Karachi's Super Highway, and Multan's Vehari Road sabzi mandis are among Pakistan's largest.

A fruit-specific mandi where mangoes, citrus (kinnow), apples, bananas, dates, melons, and other seasonal fruits are auctioned. Fruit mandis run differently from grain mandis — lots are smaller, prices fluctuate daily, and post-harvest perishability is critical.

A refrigerated warehouse where seasonal produce — potatoes, onions, apples, citrus — is stored at controlled temperature to extend shelf life and stabilize prices off-season. Cold storage operators bill per bag per month and issue cold-storage-specific gate passes.

Weekly settlement cycle — common in dairy and some grain businesses where farmers are paid every Friday for the previous week's deliveries. Pakka Khata supports haftawari auto-payment scheduling and SMS receipts.

The mandi's electronic or mechanical weighbridge used to weigh trucks, trolleys, and large lots. Lot weights are recorded from the kanda slip; modern kandas integrate directly with mandi software to eliminate manual entry.

Fermented green fodder (typically chopped maize, sorghum, or millet) stored in anaerobic conditions to feed dairy cattle through the off-season. Silage companies in Pakistan operate batch production lines and distribute via routes to dairy farms.

Compound animal feed — typically a mix of grains, oilseed cake, molasses, and minerals — fed to dairy cattle and buffaloes alongside silage. Wanda accounting tracks daily intake per animal/farm, supplier purchases, and per-kg cost. Critical for dairy economics: wanda is often 50–70% of milk-production cost.

Paddy — the unhusked rice straight from the field — in Pakistani mandi vernacular (especially Punjabi). Moonji is graded by variety (Basmati, Super Kernel, IRRI-6, etc.), moisture, and milling yield. Pakistani moonji production is ~9 million tonnes/year (Pakistan Economic Survey), concentrated in Punjab and Sindh.

A gunny bag is the coarse jute (or woven polypropylene) sack used across Pakistani mandis to pack and move grain, pulses, and produce — known locally as bardana. Standard filled weights are commonly 40 kg, 50 kg, or 100 kg depending on the crop and mandi. The empty-sack cost is recovered from the seller as a bardana deduction, and the bag count drives weighing (tulai) and transport.

Kharidari is the act of buying or procuring lots in the mandi — by a beopari, mill, or exporter from an adhati. It covers inspecting arrivals, bidding in the boli, agreeing the daam, taking weight (tulai), and settling payment (cash or credit). Buyers track kharidari per lot to know their landed cost before reselling.

Farokht is the act of selling in the mandi — a farmer's lot sold through the adhati, or a beopari reselling onward to a mill, exporter, or another market. Each farokht is recorded on a parchi with the daam, quantity, deductions, and net payable, and posts to the party's khata.

Nakdi (cash) means payment is made immediately on the deal; udhaar (credit) means it's paid later, creating a receivable or payable in the khata. Most mandi trade mixes both — farmers are often paid quickly (nakdi) while buyers take udhaar — so the adhati floats the gap. Tracking udhaar and its aging is the single biggest lever against bad debt.

Sabzi means the fresh vegetables traded in a sabzi mandi — onion (piyaz), potato (aloo), tomato (tamatar), garlic (lehsan), green chilli, gourds (lauki/tori), and leafy greens. Vegetables are highly perishable and price-volatile, so they auction at dawn (3–7 AM) in markets like Lahore Badami Bagh, Karachi Super Highway, and Multan Vehari Road. The adhati sells the kissan's sabzi lot by crate (peti) or jaali count, deducts kachra (spoilage), arhat, and labour, then settles on the same day's parchi.

Phal means the seasonal fruit traded in a fruit (phal) mandi — mango (aam), kinnow and orange (kinnu/maalta), banana (kela), apple (saib), dates (khajoor), and melons. Pakistani fruit runs on tight seasonal cycles: mango May–August (Multan, Mirpurkhas), kinnow December–March (Sargodha, Bhalwal), apple September–November (Quetta, Gilgit), dates June–September (Khairpur, Sukkur). Phal is sold by peti or per-dozen, graded A/B/C, and off-season stock often moves through cold storage.

A statutory fee levied by the provincial Market Committee on every transaction in a notified mandi. In Punjab it's governed by the Punjab Agricultural Produce Markets Ordinance and the Punjab Agriculture Policy 2018; rate varies between 0.5%–2% depending on commodity and committee notification. The fee funds mandi infrastructure (gates, sheds, weighbridges).

The arhat fee is the actual rupee amount an adhati earns as commission on a sale — the arhat rate (a percentage, typically 1.5%–2.5%) applied to the gross lot value. It is important to separate the rate (arhat %) from the fee (the computed PKR figure). In the kacha-arhti model the fee is charged to the farmer-seller's side and shown as a line item on the parchi.

The traditional Pakistani weight unit used in mandis. 1 maund = 40 kg in most of Pakistan (Punjab, Sindh, KPK). Some regions use a 37.3 kg maund (legacy 'pakka mann') or 40-seer variants. Pakka Khata supports configurable maund definitions per mandi.

A sub-unit of maund — 1 seer = 1 kg in the standard Pakistani system (so 40 seer = 1 maund). Used for retail-scale measurements and small lots.

1 tola ≈ 11.66 grams. Historically used for precious metals; in mandi contexts, occasionally used for spices and high-value condiments. 80 tola = 1 seer.

A sack used to package grain — typically 50, 60, 80, or 100 kg depending on the crop and mandi convention. Lots are often quoted in number of boris in addition to total maunds.

A peti is the wooden or plastic crate used to pack and trade fruit and vegetables in the mandi — the fruit/veg equivalent of bardana (gunny bag) for grain. A peti holds a standard quantity (e.g. a mango peti is roughly 8–10 kg, a tomato peti 20–25 kg), and lots are auctioned and counted by number of peti rather than weighed bag-by-bag. The crate is usually returnable, so its count and return are tracked like packaging, and an empty-peti rate may be charged.

A jaali is the open mesh (net) bag used to pack onion, garlic and potato in the mandi. The mesh lets air circulate so these crops don't rot or sweat, which is why they ship in jaali rather than a closed bardana or a peti. Lots are counted by number of jaali at a standard fill — a potato or onion jaali is commonly around 20–25 kg — and the daam is quoted per jaali or per maund of net weight.

The handwritten receipt traditionally issued by an adhati after every sale — recording the buyer, the lot, quantity, rate, deductions, and net payable. Today a digital parchi (printable + WhatsApp-shareable) replaces the paper one and eliminates illegible handwriting disputes. Pakka Khata's parchi is bilingual (Urdu + English side by side) and itemises arhat, bardana, kaat, tulai separately.

The book of accounts maintained by an adhati — one page per party (farmer/buyer/agent) showing every debit, credit, and running balance. Pakka Khata is literally 'a permanent khata' — a digital replacement for the bound paper register that traders have used for centuries.

An older term for a paper account book or ledger — interchangeable with khata. 'Bahi khata' is the long-form name. Phrases like 'bahi mein likho' ('write in the bahi') still echo in mandi conversations.

A classification of outstanding receivables by age — typically 0–30 days, 31–60 days, 61–90 days, and 90+ days. Higher buckets mean older, riskier dues. Pakka Khata shows aging buckets per party so you know who to chase first.

A bilti (transport receipt or goods consignment note) is the document a goods-transport company issues when grain or produce is dispatched by truck from one mandi or city to another. It records the consignor, consignee, lot/quantity, freight charge (kiraya), and vehicle — and serves as proof of dispatch and the claim document if goods are lost or damaged in transit. Beoparis and mills moving lots between distant markets reconcile every bilti against the freight they pay.