The National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) is a pan-India electronic trading system that connects current Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) mandis to form a unified national market for agricultural commodities. e-NAM was launched on April 14, 2016. It is entirely supported by the Central Government and is managed by the Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC), which is overseen by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.
Recent Developments related to e-NAM
- The platform now facilitates trade of raw agricultural residue like stubble. This aims to promote sustainable waste management.
- Efforts are ongoing to encourage more interstate trade through eNAM. For example, Tamil Nadu recently amended its APMC Act. It allows traders with unified licenses from other eNAM states to take part in their mandis. Uttar Pradesh exempted market fees for potato and vegetable trade through eNAM. This encourages wider participation.
What is National Agriculture Market (eNAM)?
The National Agriculture Market (eNAM) is a pan-India electronic trading system that integrates current APMC mandis to build a unified national agricultural market. Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) is the primary agency for eNAM implementation under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare of the Government of India.
Objectives of eNAM
- To ease pan-India commerce in agricultural commodities, markets would be integrated initially at the state level and then throughout the country via a shared online market platform.
- To streamline marketing and transaction procedures and make them uniform across all marketplaces in order to increase market efficiency.
- To promote better marketing opportunities for farmers/sellers by providing online access to more buyers/markets, eliminating information asymmetry between farmer and trader, and better and real-time price discovery based on actual demand and supply of agri-commodities.
- To build quality assurance assaying methods in order to promote informed bidding by buyers.
- To encourage people to have access to high-quality products at reasonable prices.
Components of eNAM
- States/UTs select APMCs/RMCs based on mandatory reforms in their Acts and approval of Detailed Project Reports (DPR) by the Project Appraisal Committee (PAC).
- The e-NAM software is provided to States/UTs at no cost.
- Financial assistance, up to Rs. 30.00 lakhs per market, is given for hardware, internet connections, assaying equipment, and related infrastructure to prepare markets for e-NAM integration. The remaining funds are covered by the State/UT.
- Technical assistance is provided by the Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) through Strategic Partner (SP) NFCL, including Mandi Analysts at APMCs/RMCs for one year.
- Private markets can gain e-NAM access if recommended by the competent authority of the State/UT, provided they bear the costs for Mandi Analysts, hardware, assaying facilities, and support services.
- Capacity building includes staff orientation and farmer awareness through various channels, with support from the strategic partner
Pre-requisites for e-NAM
A state must meet three key conditions before proposing Mandis for e-NAM:
- The state APMC Act must include an explicit provision for e-auction/electronic trading as a price discovery method.
- To be valid throughout the state/UT, there must be a single trading licence.
- A single point of market charge is levied across the state/territories.
Features of eNAM
A National e-market platform for transparent sale transactions and price discovery in regulated markets, Kisan mandis, warehouses, and private markets. Willing States to accordingly enact provisions for e-trading in their APMC Act.
- Liberal Licensing of traders/buyers and commission agents by State authorities without any pre-condition of physical presence or possession of shop/premises in the market yard.
- One license for a trader is valid across all markets in the State.
- Harmonization of quality standards of agricultural produce and provisions of assaying (quality testing) infrastructure in every market to enable informed bidding by buyers.
- Restriction of Agriculture Produces Marketing Committee’s (APMC) jurisdiction to within the APMC market yard/sub yard instead of a geographical area (the market area) at present.
- Single point levy of market fees, i.e., on the first wholesale purchase from the farmer.
Benefits of the eNAM Scheme
Benefits to Farmers
- E-NAM provides enhanced and expanded possibilities for selling products, resulting in fair market competition.
- It gives farmers access to the national market, with prices determined by the quality of their goods.
- Farmers benefit from better returns.
Benefits to Mandis
- Bookkeeping and reporting system costs have been reduced because they are now created automatically.
- Improved oversight and regulation of dealers and commission agents.
- A totally transparent approach that removes the possibility of intentional or inadvertent tendering/auctioning process manipulation.
- Manpower requirements are decreased because the tendering/auctioning process is conducted through e-NAM.
- It is useful for forecasting arrivals and pricing.
- The operations of each APMC are available on the government website.
Benefits to other parties
- Secondary trade buyers, processors, and exporters might use E-MAM to get access to bigger national marketplaces.
- Bulk purchasers, processors, exporters, and others can trade directly at the local mandi level, lowering their intermediation costs.
- Buyers’ transaction expenses are also decreased.
- Consumers benefit from the higher-quality products at more affordable pricing.
Achievements of e-NAM
- The e-NAM platform has seen registration from more than 1.75 crore farmers and 2.43 lakh traders as of March 31, 2023.
- Additionally, 2,575 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) have become part of the e-NAM platform.
- Notably, trading activities worth ₹2.50 lakh crore have been conducted on the e-NAM platform.
- As of March 16, 2023, the e-NAM platform has successfully integrated 1,361 mandis from 23 States and 4 Union Territories.
- The Electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) initiative of the Ministry of Agriculture was awarded the Platinum Award (1st place) in the Digital Empowerment of Citizens category at the Digital India Award 2022.
Challenges faced by e-NAM
- Governments are having trouble convincing all stakeholders, such as farmers and traders, to shift to an online platform.
- There is little indication that farmers have benefited from this new arrangement in terms of lower fees to dealers or higher profits on their crops.
- The lack of energy, computers, and internet access, as well as a lack of workers and sorting and quality testing facilities, continue to be major challenges for this initiative.
- State agricultural ministries have struggled to persuade all players, including farmers, merchants, and commission brokers, to migrate to the online platform.
- Because there are no scientific sorting/grading facilities or quality testing devices, the platform is not completely functioning in any state.
- The lack of technical knowledge and internet access at the State Agricultural Departments has further slowed the establishment of grading/assaying facilities.
- The vast majority of commerce documented on the e-NAM site was conducted offline, and the values were injected into the portal to seem like legitimate online transactions.
FAQs
What is the full meaning of SFAC?
Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) is an Autonomous Society supported by the Government of India’s Ministry of Agriculture, Cooperation, and Farmers’ Welfare.
Who has authority over Nam?
Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) manages the Portal, which is powered by NFCL’s iKisan division.
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