The Agriculture Ministry has started inter-State mandi (Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) trade through the electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) to boost farmers income and their produce. The very first inter-state transaction in tomatoes has been carried out between trader of Bareilly e-NAM APMC of Uttar Pradesh and farmer of Haldwani e-NAM APMC of Uttarakhand.
The inter -state transactions in potatoes, brinjal and cauliflower have been carried out between the e-NAM mandis of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. In all the cases, e-payments have been made through e-NAM portal. This will helps farmers get better market access, more buyers and traders to realise better prices for their produce. Farmers can access the information on e-NAM easily through their mobile phone from anywhere. This online trading platform aims at reducing transaction costs, bridging information asymmetry and helps in expanding the market access for farmers. Earlier trade used to happen either within the APMC or between two APMCs situated within same State.
The ministry has integrated 585 wholesale regulated markets/ (APMC) markets in 16 States and 2 Union Territories (UTs), who have carried out requisite reforms in their State APMC. Currently, seven States - Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Uttarakhand - are working on the modalities to establish interstate trade.
Trade in 585 mandis is currently happening on the electronic network, which helps discover price real time in a transparent manner. The Government aims at integrating 200 mandis this year and another 215 next year with the e-NAM platform. There are about 2,700 APMC mandis and 4,000 sub-market yards in India.
Founded in April 2016, eNAM is a virtual marketplace with a physical market (mandi) at the backend, networking the existing APMC/mandis to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities for pan-India electronic trading. Mandis handle huge volumes of farm produce. eNAM provides quick quality assaying solutions (preferably within a minute/parameter) to promote online trading.
Amid thousands of farmers committing suicide every passing year and with the numbers increasing, self-sufficiency in agriculture has been the top priority for the Indian agriculture ministry. eNAM is seen as an important step to transform the existing informal agricultural infrastructure into a more formal and transparent one. It is also viewed as a way to create agripreneurs out of farmers who could also market their produce smartly.
India ranks second in the world in farm output. However, despite the fact that over 55 per cent of the Indian population is dependent on farming, agriculture and allied sectors account for only 17.9 per cent of the country’s GDP.