The government on Thursday (2nd April 2020) added two new features on the electronic national agriculture market, also known as e-NAM platform so as to make it more convenient for growers to sell their produce at warehouses & collection centres established by farmer producer organizations (FPOs). The move is aimed at decongesting mandis as well as maintaining supply chains of vegetables and fruits.
Narendra Singh Tomar, Agriculture minister launched the new features of e-NAM that will strengthen agriculture marketing & reduce the need for cultivators to physically come to the mandis to sell their produce. The warehouse-based trading module in the e-NAM software would facilitate trading from the premises of warehouses, which will be based on negotiable warehouse receipts in electronic form or e-NWR whereas the other module will allow growers get access to the e-NAM platform from the collection centers of FPOs.
An official said that “There is an urgent need to decongest mandis to effectively fight against Coronavirus. These two software modules would offer additional options for farmers to sell their crops”.
It must be noted that around 585 mandis in 16 states are already connected under e-NAM that was launched by the Centre in 2014. Tomar said that another 415 mandis will be brought soon under the platform. When a mandi is connected to electronic national agriculture market, it gives a trading platform in its premise as an additional medium to the growers, apart from the traditional commission agent system.
The agriculture ministry said that only warehouses, accredited by the Warehousing Development & Regulatory Authority would be eligible to provide the trading services once the states notify them as deemed markets. Until now, Andhra Pradesh (23 warehouses) and Telangana (14 warehouses) have declared designated warehouses as deemed markets.
Kedar Deshpande, CEO, National E-Repository that manages eNWRs in warehouses said, “The additional option will surely help farmers to access e-NAM platform through the warehouses as they can keep the produce & sell it later when prices will be higher, since the storage cost is quite low”.
He said that even small farmers can easily take loan against eNWRs, generally up to 75 percent of the value of crops, at concessional interest rate of 7 percent to meet their immediate needs. The eNWR charge is usually around Rs 25 per tonne for a period not exceeding the normal shelf life of the crop.
The farmer producer organizations trading module will help these organizations upload their produce from their premises / collection centres for bidding. They can also upload the assaying report & picture of the produce & quality parameters to help bidders, outside the state, to check the produce before bidding.
