New Delhi, Dec 20 (IANS): The government's National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) scheme wherein online trading of Agriculture and Horticulture commodities is done for transparent price discovery for farmers for their produce through a competitive online bidding system has recorded trades in agricultural produce to the tune of Rs 3.79 lakh crore, the Parliament was informed on Friday.
As on October 31, as many as 1,389 mandis of 23 states and 4 Union Territories (UTs) have been integrated with e-NAM platform. So far, 1.78 crore farmers, 2.62 lakhs traders and more than 4,250 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) are registered on e-NAM, Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare Ram Nath Thakur said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.
The minister said e-NAM is a demand-driven scheme. The integration of mandis under the e-NAM platform is based on proposals received from state governments and Union Territories, reflecting their demand and readiness.
Mandis are integrated into the platform upon fulfilling the necessary infrastructure and technical requirements as per the e-NAM operational guidelines.
State-wise, the number of mandis integrated with e-NAM platform as on October 31, 2024 include Tamil Nadu with 157, Rajasthan 145, Gujarat 144, Madhya Pradesh 139, Maharashtra 133, Haryana 108 and Punjab 79.
The e-NAM portal provides single window services for all APMC related information and services. This includes commodity arrivals, quality and prices, buy and sell offers and e-payment settlement directly into farmers’ account, among other services.
The e-NAM is a pan-India electronic trading portal, networks the existing Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) mandis to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities.
The initiative was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 14, 2016.
The e-NAM platform promotes better marketing opportunities for the farmers to sell their produce through the online competitive and transparent price discovery system and online payment facility.