The Union Government has urged the Odisha Government to make amendments to the Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act to facilitate joining in the National Agriculture Market (e-NAM), which would be fully rolled out across the country on a priority basis.
Union Agriculture & Famers’ Welfare Secretary Shovan Kumar Pattanayak has requested the State Government to amend the Act to incorporate the prerequisites for joining e-NAM.
E-NAM is being implemented by the Department of Agriculture & Cooperation of the Government of India after Prime Minister Narendra Modi advised to roll out a unified national market for agricultural commodities by integrating the existing APMCs with a Pan India Electronic Trading Portal.
E-NAM was launched on a pilot basis on April 14, 2016 in 21 markets in eight States, More States have joined which now encompasses 250 markets across 10 States with 69 commodities being traded on e-NAM.
E-NAM software would be provided to the States free of cost besides technical support for one year and one-time grant up to Rs30 lakh per market based on detailed project reports (DPRs) for augmenting the basic infrastructure of the Mandi needed for online trading.
So, the market integration through e-Platform in the country would facilitate transparent and competitive price discovery of agriculture produce giving advantage to farmer, said Union Secretary Pattnayak.
He has said any State willing to join the e-NAM portal has to carry out three prerequisite amendments to its APMC Act. These include providing Single Trader licence for the State, Single Point of levy Market Fee and Online Trading. These arrangements are to be incorporated in the APMC Act.
As more and more States are joining e-NAM, Pattnayak has urged the Odisha Government to bring in marketing reforms so as to integrate in e-NAM.
In Odisha, agricultural marketing is handled by the Department of Cooperation, and a full-fledged Odisha State Agricultural Marketing (OSAM) Board is in place.
Under the present dispensation, there are 65 Regulated Market Committees (RMCs) functioning under the supervision and control of the OSAM Board and the Directorate.
These RMCs are democratically-elected bodies consisting of members from different constituencies such as farmers, traders, farmers’ cooperatives, local urban bodies, etc. Generally, the concerned Sub-Collector or District Collector, under whose jurisdiction an RMC falls, is nominated as the Chairman of the RMC.
However, changes are now required in the Act so that farmers in Odisha would
be able to reap the benefits of the e-NAM initiative, said an official.