Building e-market for farmers, a boon

The National Agriculture Market or e-NAM platform connecting 21 mandis from 8 states launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 14 did not get noticed in the media commensurate with its game-changing potential for the farmers who toil hard braving heat wave or biting cold only to see their produce sold in the highly distorted market at distress price. Through e-NAM, the farmers will have a choice to log on to the platform and sell their produce at the best price discovered through a wider base of market players competing for procurement. In the first phase, 21 mandis have joined the trading platform but the government wants to connect 585 mandis in the next two years. Hopefully, if this target is achieved, the initiative will not only help significantly increase the monetary yield for the farmers but also bring about wider positive spin-offs for the economy equivalent to the potential gains from the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST). Even as the GST remains a football between the BJP and the Congress, e-NAM can integrate the entire rural landscape into uniform market, helping both growers and consumers.

Since agriculture is a state subject, the Centre needs to take states on board in sewing up the e-platform into a single market without the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Acts coming in the way. The APMC Act, which has since been amended by 14 states to allow such a technology-driven initiative, could have been dealt with in a manner that did not require the tedious processes of amending the laws. In any case, the states which have agreed to join the initiative must be lauded for their honest intentions to help the farmers who are witnessing a crisis like situation even as the Met department is giving some hope to look skyward for normal Monsoon this year after back to back deficit for two years.

As many as 25 crops would be traded on the e-NAM which is partnered in the first phase by Gujarat, Telangana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Jharkhand and Himachal Pradesh. Farmers should be able to seek the best bids for their harvest in wheat, maize, pulses, oilseeds, potatoes, onions, and spices among others. Such reforms which can ride the technology and involvement of trade, industry, cooperatives and NGOs, should be the top priority of the government. Similar path-breaking steps should be encouraged in water management, dry land farming, farm tools and equipment, allied activities like dairy farming and fishery and micro-financing.