New Delhi [India], April 14 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, said that he believes that with the help of the National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) portal, the farmers will be able to decide the place, time and price of selling their products, and reduce the burden on the consumers.
"I firmly believe that now my farmers would decide where, when and at what price their produce will be sold. And it is my belief that there would be no burden on the consumer," the Prime Minister said in a statement.
National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) is a pan-India electronic trading portal which networks the existing Agricultural Produce Market Committee(APMC) mandis to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer's Welfare informed in a press release.
Launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 14, 2016, e-NAM is completely funded by the Central Government and is implemented by Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC), under the aegis of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare.
The e-NAM platform promotes better marketing opportunities for the farmers to sell their products through an online competitive and transparent price discovery system and online payment facility.
"The e-NAM portal provides single window services for all APMC-related information and services. This includes commodity arrivals, quality and prices, buy and sell offers and e-payment settlement directly into farmers' accounts, among other services. It aims to promote uniformity in agriculture marketing by streamlining procedures across the integrated markets, removing information asymmetry between buyers and sellers and promoting real-time price discovery based on actual demand and supply," the Ministry stated.
As per the Ministry, the e-NAM aims to integrate markets first at the state level, and eventually across the country through a common online market platform, which can facilitate pan-India trade in agricultural commodities. It also aims to streamline marketing/transaction procedures and make them uniform across all markets to promote the efficient functioning of the markets.
It further aims to promote better marketing opportunities for farmers/sellers through online access to more buyers/markets, removal of information asymmetry between farmer and trader, better and real-time price discovery based on actual demand and supply of agri-commodities, transparency in the auction process, prices commensurate with the quality of produce, online payment etc. that contribute to marketing efficiency, the Ministry added.
Its other objective is to establish quality assaying systems for quality assurance to promote informed bidding by buyers, and to promote stable prices and availability of quality products to consumers.
As per the Ministry, so far, more than 1.75 crore Farmers and 2.43 Lakh traders have registered on the e-NAM platform (as on March 31, 2023). 2,575 FPOs have been onboarded on the e-NAM platform, and a traded value worth Rs 2.50 lakh crore has been recorded on the e-NAM platform. As on March 16, 2023, 1361 mandis of 23 States and four UTs have been integrated with the e-NAM platform. In addition to this, the Electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) initiative of the Ministry of Agriculture won Platinum Award (1st) in the Digital Empowerment of Citizens Category.
The major benefits of the e-NAM include transparent online trading with enhanced accessibility to the market, real-time price discovery for better and stable price realization for producers, reduced transaction costs for buyers, and availability of information on the e-NAM mobile app about commodity prices.
The details of the price of the commodity sold along with quantity are received through SMS, Quality certification, more efficient supply chain and warehouse-based sales, and online payment directly to the bank accounts of the farmers are the other benefits of the scheme.
The outcomes of the scheme include a single license for trading across all markets in a State, a single point of market fee, an electronic auction for transparent price discovery, easier norms for obtaining trading licenses, abolition of fragmented markets, seamless transfer of agricultural commodities, improved supply-chain and reduced wastage, increased price share for the farmers, wholesale based sales, quality based informed training, the Ministry stated.
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