Inter-state trade via eNAM now a reality

In a major milestone for farm trade, the National Agriculture Market (eNAM) programme launched a transaction between mandis of two states. In the first such transaction, a trader from Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh bought tomatoes from a farmer in Haldwani in Uttarakhand. Also, transactions in potatoes, brinjal and cauliflower were carried out between the eNAM mandis of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. Payments were made through the eNAM portal.

eNAM is a pan-India electronic trading portal that networks the existing Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) mandis to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities. Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) is the lead agency for implementing eNAM under the aegis of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.

So far, 585 regulated markets of 16 states and two Union territories have been integrated with the eNAM platform. The government has decided to integrate an additional 415 markets by March 2020. According to a report, there are about 2,700 APMC mandis and 4,000 sub-market yards in the country.

According to the ministry, the platform provides better marketing opportunities for farmers to sell their produce online through a transparent price discovery system and electronic payments. It also 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 the farmer’s account.

Last year, the Union government had said that 22,000 rural markets would be linked to eNAM by 2020 as part of its drive to double the income of farmers. “22,000 rural haats will be upgraded to Gramin Agricultural Markets and linked with the e-National Agriculture Market to enable farmers sell directly to potential buyers,” Union Minister of State for Agriculture Gajendra Singh Shekhawat had said while addressing AgriVikas 2018.