“Farm-gate trade” on e-NAM portal picks up; Overall trade on digital platform up 3% on year to Rs 57,633 crore
Purchases of crops right from farmgate have risen across several states on the electronic National Agriculture Market (eNAM) platform this fiscal, leading to additional income for farmers due to savings in cost of transporting their produce to the mandis.
Farmers in 11 states – Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir – sold paddy, maize, cotton, cauliflower, onion and tomato and other items using farm-gate purchase model through e-NAM.
“After uploading of the lot size and other details about the commodities by farmers on the e-NAM portal, buyers source the commodities directly from farm-gate after making payments to farmers’ bank accounts and requisite mandi fees. This saves transportation cost and cost of loading and unloading of commodities at the mandi,” an official told FE.
An agriculture ministry official said while the volume of farm gate trade is still a small portion of total turnover of e-NAM at Rs 57,633 crore in April-December (2023-24), it indicates a gradual shift to the digital platform, being used for better price discovery by the farmers.
The total traded value of commodities on the digital platform using the farmgate model during April – December, 2023 has been Rs 74 crore compared to a very small amount traded last fiscal.
The agriculture ministry officials have urged other states to follow the farm gate purchase model so that farmers could sell their commodities at appropriate time and save costs.
Meanwhile, in the April-December period of the current fiscal, there has been a 161% spike in inter-mandi trade on e-NAM to Rs 1137 crore. In terms of inter-state trade too, there has been an increase since the beginning of the year.
The e-NAM platform currently allows online trading in 209 agricultural, horticultural and other commodities notified by respective state governments.
At present, 1,361 mandis in 27 states and Union Territories are integrated with the e-NAM platform. Also, 17.68 million farmers, 3320 FPOs, 0.25 million traders and around 0.11 million commission agents are registered with e-NAM.
Currently 27 states and union territories including Tamil Nadu (157), Rajasthan (145), Gujarat (144), Maharashtra (133), Uttar Pradesh (125) and Haryana (108) mandis are on e-NAM platform which was launched in April 2016.
Sources said there are estimated to be around 7000 mandis in the country and after the recommendation from mandi boards of respective states, the marketplace for agricultural produce comes on board of e-NAM.
While stating that the e-NAM is the only digital platform with no user charges are being levied on the transaction, the agriculture ministry has urged all the central agencies such as Food Corporation of India, farmers’ cooperative NAFED and others engaged in procurement and selling of grain, pulses and other agricultural produce to use the platform for better price discovery.
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