Government has integrated 250 mandis in ten states with the electronic national agriculture market (e-NAM) in the first phase.
e-NAM is a pan India electronic portal for sale and purchase of agri-produce in an efficient and transparent manner. The government has allocated Rs 200 crore for this scheme.
So far, 1,53,992 tonnes of agriculture produce worth Rs 421 crore has been transacted on e-NAM platform.
As many as 1,60,229 farmers, 46,688 traders and 25,970 commission agents have been registered on the e-NAM at present.
About 69 agricultural and horticultural commodities including fruits and vegetables are notified for trading on e-NAM platform.
In order to curb physical inspection of quality of the produce in mandis, states have been asked to set up the assaying facilities to ensure quality assessment of farmers’ produce in a scientific and professional manner.
Provision of online payment of the sale proceeds to farmers has also been made available on e-NAM portal and states have been requested to encourage direct transfer of sale proceeds to farmers’ bank account.
Background:
In April, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the e-NAM on a pilot basis with 22 mandis in eight states.
The target was to integrate 200 mandis by September this year and total 585 by March 2018.
The integration of these mandis to e-platform will help increase farmers income in the long run.