Modi to launch electronic National Agriculture Market today

Farmers across eight states will be able to sell 25 farm products online from Thursday when Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveils the electronic National Agriculture Market (eNAM) here.

As part of the pilot project, the eNAM will link 21 wholesale markets across eight states and would enable farmers get better price for their produce.

“In Karnataka, where APMC markets have already been linked, farmers are getting upto 30% better price than the physical markets,” Agriculture Minister Radhamohan Singh told reporters here. The government plans to link 585 wholesale markets across the country by March 2018, as a part of its efforts to help farmers double their income by 2022.

Though the plans were to enable farmers trade across states, the pilot project entails only intra-state trading.

The eNAM project is modelled on the Karnataka initiative which saw the linking of 55 wholesale markets with traders getting a single licence to trade across the state unlike the previous rules where licences were issued for every wholesale market. “eNAM will help end cartelisation of traders and enable farmers get better rates for their produce,” a senior official said.

To begin with 25 commodities such as onion, potato, apple, wheat, pulses, coarse grains, cotton, jowar, red chilli, tamrind, among others, have been identified for online trading. Simultaneously, the e-trading portal will be inaugurated at 21 wholesale mandis in eight states—Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Telangana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Jharkhand and Himachal Pradesh.