More mandis on the agri digital platform.
With more farmers, traders and FPOS on board the electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM), the trade turnover on digital platform launched in 2016 is set to cross Rs 1 trilion in the current fiscal, up from Rs 74,656 crore in 2022-23.
In the April-July of the current fiscal, there has been a 287% spike in inter-mandi trade on e-NAM at Rs 449 crore compared to the same period previous fiscal. In terms of inter-state trade which was stagnant until a year ago, there has been a pick-up since the beginning of the year.
The agriculture ministry has approved integration of 25 new mandis with the National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) to allow farmers to sell their produce through digital platforms.
The new mandi is being integrated are in Maharashtra (15), Jammu and Kashmir (6) and Uttarakhand (4). With this integration, the total mandis using e-NAM platform would be 1386.
At present, 1,361 mandis in 27 states and Union Territories are integrated with the e-NAM platform. Also, 17.96 million farmers, 3043 FPOs, 0.24 million traders and around 0.1 million commission agents are registered with e-NAM.
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 come on board of 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.
An agriculture ministry official told FE only those mandis which are operational throughout the year and facilitate multi-commodities trade are allowed to come on the pan India digital platform, The official said that more mandis will be on e-NAM so that more farmers can sell their produce to the highest bidders.
An agriculture ministry official said while the volume of inter-mandi trade is still a small portion of total turnover of e-NAM at Rs 20,926 crore in April-July (2023-24), it indicates a gradual shift to the digital platform, being used for better price discovery by the farmers.
Since the beginning of the year, the inter-state trade using e-NAM platform on commodities with farmers from Uttar Pradesh, Kashmir, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand selling commodities such as potato, apples, mustard, ragi, silk cocoon, chana, soyabean and jeera, to buyers in Kerala, Odisha, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, sources said.
The e-NAM platform currently allows online trading in 209 agricultural, horticultural and other commodities notified by respective state governments.
According to the agriculture ministry, since its launch seven years back, Rs. 2.79 trillion worth of trade has been recorded on e-NAM platform.
Still this trade on e-NAM is much less than the total trade of agricultural commodities, excluding milk and marine products in the country estimated at around Rs 6 trillion
