eNAM Gains Acceptance Among Farmers as Number Of Quality Checks, Online Payments Surge

The electronic National Agriculture Market (eNAM), a pet scheme of the Narendra Modi government, has begun to gain acceptance among farmers with the value of online payments and number of consignments undergoing quality checks rising.

Financial daily The Hindu Business Line reported that online payments through eNAM surged to Rs 70.62 crore in the 2017-18 fiscal compared to a meagre Rs 3.38 crore in 2016-17. In the first four months of the current fiscal, online payments have topped Rs 68 crore.

Similarly, quality checks of assaying rose to 13 lakh lots last fiscal compared with just one lakh lots in 2016-17. In the current fiscal, 8 lakh lots of various commodities have been assayed for quality and it is likely that 25 lakh lots could be assayed by March 2019.

The financial daily said that 85 per cent of the 585 markets that have adopted eNAM by March 2018, have basic facilities for assaying, measuring moisture, hot air oven and lab equipment.

eNAM addresses farmers’ marketing challenges by creating a unified market through online trading platform. Prime Minister Modi launched eNAM on 14 April 2016 as a part of the government’s efforts to double farmers income.

eNAM is a pan-India electronic trading portal which networks the existing agricultural markets to create a unified national market for farm produce. It provides a single window service for all APMC related information and services. This includes commodity arrivals and prices, buy and sell offers, provision to respond to trade offers, among other services.

Here’s how the government’s eNAM program works: