Decoding e-NAM - Catalyst to Digital Transformation of Mandi System
There are 10 crore farmers in India out of which around 1.69 crore farmers registered on the e-NAM platform. With the integration of 38 new Mandis with e-NAM or the electronic National Agriculture Market, the Government has brought in a total of 1000 mandis under it and another 1,000 mandis will get added in FY-22
The National Agriculture Market or e-NAM is a pan-India electronic trading platform for farmers, traders, and buyers to sell or buy their agricultural produce smoothly in India. While the government is claiming a significant success having managed to incorporate 1,000 mandis under e-NAM, statistics suggest, a lot more work is required. Industry reports suggest that India has a little over 6,000 Mandis and over 15 crore identified farmers.
Launched in April 2016 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to unite the national market for agricultural commodities, the e- NAM portal is a single-window service for any information and services related to APMC that includes: Commodity arrivals and prices, buy and sell trade offer provision to respond to trade offers, among other services. There are multiple benefits of e-NAM. Firstly, it is a pan-India electronic trading portal for agricultural commodities which provides the farmers access to nationwide market. The prices on e-NAM commensurate with the quality of the farmer's produce. It also offers the provision for e-auction/ e-trading as a mode of price discovery.
The digital trading system so far has seen trading of 41.3 million tonnes of bulk commodities and 36.8 million coconut and bamboo worth approximately Rs 1.22-lakh crore. During Covid-19, the e-NAM platform and its mobile application was further strengthened by launching FPO trading module in e-NAM whereby farmer producer organisations (FPOs) could trade their produce from their collection centres without bringing the produce to mandis. As per a note prepared by the ministry, till date a total of 1,844 FPOs have been on board on e-NAM platform. Additionally, a warehouse-based trading module was also launched.
States Integrated with e-NAM
With the integration of 38 new Mandis with e-NAM, the Indian Government fulfilled the target of integrating 415 Mandis in phase 2 of e-NAM. In the first phase a total of 585 mandis were integrated with the e-National Agriculture Market. Now, the number stands at 1000 mandis under e-NAM. By the end of financial year 2021-22, another 1000 mandis are proposed to be added to this tally taking the overall tally of mandis under e-NAM to over 2,000.
So which states have the largest number of Mandis under e-NAM? As per the latest data made available by the agriculture ministry, the states of Rajasthan (144), Uttar Pradesh (125), Maharashtra (118) and Madhya Pradesh (80) are leading the tally.
Issues that are addressed by e-NAM
The e-NAM promotes uniformity and transparency by eliminating information irregularity between the buyers and sellers. It provides a nationwide accessible market for the farmer with equal prices for the quality of their produce. Till now, the Common tradable parameters have been developed for 61 commodities. The central government is also offering a grant of Rs 30 lakhs to the participating agriculture mandis. Farmers under this scheme are given ‘farmer helpline services’ 24×7 to help them obtain information about the portal. Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) is the lead promoter of e-NAM. SFAC is formulated under the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers’ Welfare. SFAC through open tender selects a partner to develop, operate, and maintain the NAM e-platform.
There are 10 crore farmers in India out of which around 1.69 crore farmers have registered on the e-NAM platform.
How it works?
Under e-NAM, one license is issued for a trader that is valid across all markets in the State. Then there is a single-point tax of market fees on the first wholesale purchase from the farmer. For local traders in the mandi, NAM offers the opportunity to access a larger national market for secondary trading. For the farmers, it increases access to markets through warehouse-based sales and thus obviate the need to transport his produce to the mandi. Bulk buyers, processors, exporters, etc. benefit from being able to participate directly in trading at the local mandi level through the NAM platform, thereby reducing their intermediation costs.
Challenges
A lot of work is required to upgrade the existing, poor quality of infrastructure coupled with low to very minimal use of technology. This is one of the major challenges to the farmers. Then lack of awareness, irregular electricity, availability of working computers and high-speed internet across smaller towns are also posing operational challenges that need urgent attention.
