Indian Economy
Mandis Under e-NAM Increased
- 12 May 2020
- 3 min read
According to the recent data, the number of connected mandis, or wholesale markets under e-NAM has increased upto 65%.
- This increase is because of transport disruptions and social distancing requirements which have made physical mandi trade more difficult in recent times.
Key Points
- After the launch of e-NAM in 2016, its progress was slow because,
- Many States did not amend their Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Acts.
- Most farmers were not part of the cooperatives that would help aggregate the bulk quantity of produce needed to attract online buyers.
- Most mandis did not possess the infrastructure to make the most of the platform.
- The Central Government recognised the potential of e-NAM in overcoming some of the hurdles of the lockdown, and introduced some important new features in April, 2020:
- A trading module allowing Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) to trade produce directly from their collection centres without bringing it to mandis.
- A warehouse-based trading module.
- A logistics module offering users trackable transport facilities through aggregators with access to 11 lakh trucks.
- On 1st May 2020, Agriculture Ministry had launched integration of 200 e-NAM mandis from 7 States including 1 new state of Karnataka being added on e-NAM.
- Now the total mandis under e-NAM has reached a total of around 950 across India from about 550 before lockdown.
e-NAM
- The National Agricultural Market (e-NAM) is a pan-India electronic trading portal.
- It was launched in April 2016 with the objective of integrating the existing Mandis to “One Nation One Market” for agricultural commodities in India.
- It networks the existing APMC mandis to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities and has a vision:
- To promote uniformity in agriculture marketing by streamlining procedures across the integrated markets.
- Removing information asymmetry between buyers and sellers and promoting real time price discovery based on actual demand and supply.
- It provides for contactless remote bidding and mobile-based anytime payment for which traders do not need to either visit mandis or banks for the same.
- Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) is the lead agency for implementing e-NAM.
- It functions under the aegis of Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare
