BARGARH: Struggling to find proper market opportunities due to the lockdown, vegetable farmers of the district have found succour in the e-National Agriculture Market (NAM) platform at the Regulated Market Committee (RMC) in Bargarh which enables them to sell their produce online.
The Bargarh RMC was linked to the online platform on April 26 and started functioning the same day. The e-NAM facility is a virtual platform of the Union Ministry of Agriculture to facilitate online trading of agriculture and horticulture products through competitive bidding. It provides a choice to farmers for selling their produce to traders without any intermediary or commission agents and prevents distress sale.
The portal connects wholesale mandis (Agriculture Produce Market Committee markets) in the states to traders across the country. As many as 66 RMCs are functioning under Odisha State Agricultural Marketing Board. Secretary of Bargarh RMC Durga Churia said e-NAM, “We have identified around 4,000 farmers in the district so far of whom around 15 have registered for selling their produce through e-NAM.
Besides, we have already issued licence to 25 local traders in the last two days who are participating in the e-bidding process.” Nearly, five quintal of vegetables have been sold in the first two days. “The platform will be useful for many farmers once it is known to them. The facility has been started at an appropriate time as farmers are struggling to find buyers,” Churia added.