HYDERABAD: In markets where e-National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) is live at present, it is still at an elementary stage. There are several gaps that need to be filled to serve the purpose of providing better marketing facilities for farmers.
The central government, in April 2016, launched e-NAM whereby farmers could sell agricultural produce to buyers located in far-off places. It was envisaged as a pan-India electronic trading portal by the union government and implemented in coordination with the state government. It is a “virtual” market but it has a physical market at the back end.
Among the gamut of reforms undertaken by states till date 417 markets from 13 states have been integrated with e-NAM by March, 2017 and 585 regulated mandis across the country will be integrated with the portal by March, 2018 to create a network of unified national market for agricultural commodities. While the statistics of Ministry provide a promising picture, the actual picture at the market level is quite different, highlighting many shortcomings.
“In many markets officials are showing the agri produce sold offline as sold online and preparing reports. The intention of setting up e-NAM is good and will be beneficial and if implemented properly we can see farmer getting a remunerative price and avoiding middlemen. However, in most of the mandis which the Ministry claims to have already integrated with e-NAM, actually no business is taking place through e-NAM,” points out S Jaipal Reddy of Federation of Farmers Association.
So far, the union government has allocated Rs 200 crore for e-NAM, which is being implemented in coordination with the state governments. While one-time registration of farmers and sellers, quality assaying, auctions, payment and other transactions take place online, the actual material flow will happen physically through the market. But the lack of awareness among farmers and certain technical and procedural bottlenecks are coming in the way of making e-NAM, a rewarding online platform for farmers.
Stressing on the steps needed to be taken for making e-NAM effective, G Lakshmi Bai, director of Agriculture Marketing, Telangana stated that “Inter-mandi and Intra-mandi trading have to be allowed to generate demand from the traders other than those regularly operating in the mandi and assaying services are to be made available in all e-NAM operating mandis across the country to facilitate distant trading.”
“If e-NAM has to become popular, government has to ensure that produce sold on the platform is delivered in the same quality. Also all markets have be linked and awareness created among farmers,” added Vijaya Sardana, agriculture economist.