Centre asks states to speed up implementation of e-NAM

NEW DELHI: The Centre today asked state governments to speed up implementation of electronic-national agriculture market (e-NAM) to achieve the target of integrating 200 mandis by September this year. At present, only 23 mandis in eight states have been integrated with the e-NAM. The government has kept a total target of 585 by March 2018. A meeting was called here today to discuss with state government

officials the progress made in the implementation of e-NAM in various states. Agriculture Secretary Shobhana K Pattanayak in the meeting directed state officials to fasten the process and put in place infrastructure at the earliest so that more mandis are integrated with the e-platform, sources said. Some states, especially Uttar Pradesh which at present has integrated only six mandis, have promised to integrate 60 mandis by August 15, while Madhya Pradesh has said it will integrate at least 10 mandis by that date.

Eight states - Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka - which have already integrated some mandis have informed the Centre that they will bring more to the e-NAM platform by next month, sources added.

The Secretary also informed the state governments to popularise e-NAM among the farming community by putting up bill boards as well as logos at appropriate locations.

Out of 23 mandis in eight states, six from Uttar Pradesh, five from Telangana, four from Haryana and three from Gujarat have been integrated into e-NAM. Himachal has integrated two mandis while Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have done one each, as per the government data.

However, only one commodity is being traded at present via electronic platform from each mandi, the data showed.

For instance, in Uttar Pradesh, all six mandis are trading wheat on the e-platform while Patan district in Gujarat is dealing in castor seed and Botad mandi in Bhavnagar district is handling chana (black gram).

The two mandis of Haryana are trading sunflower seed while Himachal Pradesh is focused on shelling peas, the data showed.

In April, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the e-NAM scheme in 21 mandis of eight states. The government has allocated Rs 200 crore for this scheme.

Under the scheme, a pan India e-trading portal is being deployed in select regulated wholesale markets in states.

For integration with e-NAM, states are required to complete certain pre-requisite reforms in their respective Agriculture Produce Marketing (Regulation) Acts.

The scheme is expected to benefit farmers through enhanced market access by way of allowing remote online bidding for their produce, removal of information asymmetry between buyers and sellers, real-time price discovery based on actual demand-supply gap through transparent online auction and online payment directly to farmers' accounts.