Context: According to the recent data, the number of connected mandis, or wholesale markets under e-NAM has increased upto 65%.
Key Points

• COVID-19 has given a boost to e-NAM, the national digital platform for agricultural trade, with the number of connected mandis, or wholesale markets, up 65% since the lockdown,
• This increase is because of transport disruptions and social distancing requirements which have made physical mandi trade more difficult in recent times.

Concerns

Though e-NAM was launched in 2016, the progress was slow:

• Especially, as many States did not amend their APMC Acts.
• Most farmers were not part of the cooperatives that would help aggregate the bulk quantity of produce needed to interest online buyers.
• Most mandis did not possess the infrastructure to make the most of the platform.

By January 2019, when the first inter-State trade took place, there were only 585 mandis connected to the platform, although the Agriculture Ministry promised to integrate 415 more mandis by March 2020. At the end of March 2020, Now the total mandis under e-NAM has reached a total of around 950 across India from about 550 before lockdown

• The Centre recognised the potential of e-NAM in overcoming some of the hurdles of the lockdown, and introduced some important new features:
• A trading module allowing Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) to trade produce directly from their collection centres without bringing it to mandis.
• A warehouse-based trading module.
• A logistics module offering users trackable transport facilities through aggregators with access to 11 lakh trucks.
• Hence, e-NAM has provided a platform to trade, at a time when transport disruptions and social distancing requirements have made physical mandi trade more difficult.

About e-NAM

• The National Agricultural Market (e-NAM) is a pan-India electronic trading portal.
• It was launched in April 2016 with the objective of integrating the existing Mandis to “One Nation One Market” for agricultural commodities in India.

It networks the existing APMC mandis to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities and has a vision:

• To promote uniformity in agriculture marketing by streamlining procedures across the integrated markets.
• Removing information asymmetry between buyers and sellers and promoting real time price discovery based on actual demand and supply.