BHUBANESWAR: The Centre has asked State Government to implement National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) programme on a priority basis to facilitate farmers get remunerative prices for their produce.
The existing Agriculture Produce Marketing Cooperative (APMC) has been connected with online facility to help the farmers as an unified market.
Even though some of the mandis have been integrated with e-NAM in Odisha, none of the traders registered in the portal have been issued licence which is necessary for inter-mandi and inter-state operations. In the absence of a licence, any trade hardly is taking place in the State. Lack of necessary infrastructure, including internet connectivity, has come in the way of its implementation, said sources.
Official sources maintained that absence of internet connectivity has affected bidding and trading activities. The volume of arrival of produce at e-NAM mandis is also small. At mandi level also, the volume of physical arrival of commodities at gate on e-NAM mandis is small as compared to total volume in the e-NAM platform. The Odisha State Agriculture Marketing Board (OSAMB) has since been connected with e-NAM because of slowing down of online trading of agricultural produce resulting in lack of competitive price to farmers.