NEW DELHI: More than seven years after the launch of pan-India digital wholesale agri-marketing platform or electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM), purchase from farmgate trade has finally taken off across several states. Farmers are selling commodities on the platform without physically transporting it to the mandis.
Using farm-gate module, farmers in 11 states including Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Himachal Pradesh have sold several commodities paddy, maize, cotton, raw banana, cauliflower, onion, tomato, brinjal and coconut on the digital platform without transporting the commodities to agricultural produce market committee (APMC) mandis.
“This module reduces farm gate losses and minimises transportation and handling expenses,” the official told FE adding that farmers upload photos of lot sizes of commodities and assaying reports from the farm field through nearest APMC mandis on e-NAM platform.
Buyers registered with mandis bid for the commodities and buyers lift the commodities from farmgate after making payment to farmers bank account, the official said.
In the April-November period of the current fiscal, there has been a 188% spike in inter-mandi trade on e-NAM to Rs 988 crore. In terms of inter-state trade, which was not happening a year ago, there has been an increase since the beginning of the year.
An agriculture ministry official said while the volume of inter-mandi trade is still a small portion of total turnover of e-NAM at Rs 48,697 crore in April-November (2023-24), it indicates a gradual shift to the digital platform, being used for better price discovery by the farmers.
Since the beginning of the current fiscal, the inter-state trade using e-NAM platform on commodities with farmers from Uttar Pradesh, Kashmir, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Telangana selling commodities such as potato, apples, saffron, turmeric, mustard, ragi, silk cocoon, chana, soyabean and jeera, to buyers in Kerala, Gujarat, Odisha, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, sources said.
Recently on the request from the power ministry requesting biomass derived from paddy stubble/ crop residue to be traded on the pan India digital platform, the item has been added to the list of trade commodities on e-NAM. The trial trade of ‘raw biomass (agro-residue)’ was carried out using e-NAM in the Ambala Mandi.
The e-NAM platform currently allows online trading in 209 agricultural, horticultural and other commodities notified by respective state governments.
At present, 1,361 mandis in 27 states and Union Territories are integrated with the e-NAM platform. Also, 17.64 million farmers, 3320 FPOs, 0.24 million traders and around 0.11 million commission agents are registered with e-NAM.
Currently 27 states and union territories including Tamil Nadu (157), Rajasthan (145), Gujarat (144), Maharashtra (133), Uttar Pradesh (125) and Haryana (108) mandis are on e-NAM platform which was launched in April 2016.
Sources said there are estimated to be around 7000 mandis in the country and after the recommendation from mandi boards of respective states, the marketplace for agricultural produce comes on board of e-NAM.
While stating that the e-NAM is the only digital platform with no user charges are being levied on the transaction, the agriculture ministry has urged all the central agencies such as Food Corporation of India, farmers’ cooperative NAFED and others engaged in procurement and selling of grain, pulses and other agricultural produce to use the platform for better price discovery.
Source: The Financial Express
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