Lockdown helps govt integrate 200 mandis from 7 states with marketing platform e-NAM
01 May 2020
Amidst a nationwide lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the agriculture ministry today announced the integration of 200 new mandis (agricultural produce markets) with the e-NAM platform, thereby achieving the first milestone in its target of integrating 415 new markets across the country.
Announcing this, union minister of agriculture and farmers welfare Narendra Singh Tomar said that by May 2020 there will be around a thousand mandis joining the e-NAM platform for marketing of agricultural produce.
He was speaking at a function in Krishi Bhawan where 200 new mandis were added to the e-NAM platform from seven states. The minister also witnessed via video conference live trading between mandis from Kurnool and Hubli in groundnuts and maize. He said the prime minister’s vision of using technology for the benefit of farmers will soon be realised.
The 200 markets integrated with the e-NAM platform today are: Andhra Pradesh (11 mandis), Gujarat (25 mandis), Odisha (16 mandis), Rajasthan (94 mandis), Tamil Nadu (27 mandis), Uttar Pradesh (25 mandis) and Karnataka (2 mandis). This will bring the total e-NAM mandis in the country to 785.
It is for the first time that Karnataka state has been added to the e-NAM platform.
E-Nam, which aims at reaching the last mile farmer and transforming the way they sell agri produce, has gained more strength today by reaching out to more farmers and traders of these new mandis. Already 585 mandis in 16 states and 2 union territories have been integrated and are working.
E-NAM is also integrated from today with the Unified Market Platform (UMP) of Karnataka’s Rashtriya e-Market Services (ReMS), an e-trading platform promoted by the Karnataka State Agriculture Marketing Board. This will facilitate traders across both the platforms to execute seamless trading in both the platforms by using single sign on framework.
This is for the first time in India that two different e-trading platforms for agri commodities of this scale will be made interoperable. This will help farmers of Karnataka to sell their produce to large number of traders registered with e-NAM and even farmers from e-NAM mandis in other states will be able to sell their produce to Karnataka traders who are enrolled with ReMS platform of Karnataka. This will also promote inter-state trade between the states on-boarded on e-NAM platform and Karnataka.
E-NAM has come a long way with 16.6 million farmers and 1.28 lakh traders having been registered on its platform. As of 30 April 2020, e-NAM has recorded total trade volume of 34.1 million tonnes and 3.7 million trades (Bamboo and Coconut) collectively worth approximately Rs1,00,000 crore. A path-breaking and revolutionary concept in agri-sector, the e-NAM online platform has proven to be a giant leap in reforming the agriculture market in India.
E-NAM facilitates trade beyond mandi/ state borders. A total of 233 mandis have participated in inter-mandi trade within 12 states, whereas 13 states/UTs have participated in the inter-state trading on e-NAM platform allowing farmers to interact directly with distantly located traders. At present, more than 1,000 FPOs have been on-boarded on e-NAM platform.
In addition, the agriculture ministry launched two major modules in e-NAM last month to deal with the COVID-19 situation so that famers can sell their produce without bringing them to mandi.
These modules are: FPO module helping farmer members of FPO to trade from their collection center and other being warehouse module whereby farmers can sell their stored produce in WDRA registered warehouses, declared as deemed mandi by states. In addition, the ministry recently launched the “Kisan Rath” mobile App which is helping farmers in finding a suitable transport vehicles/tractor to carry their produce to nearby mandi and warehouse etc.