New Delhi, May 12 (TIWN) With the launch of 177 additional mandis, the total number of eNAM mandis across country reached 962 as Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar on Monday launched integration of new mandis with the National Agriculture Market (e-NAM).

Out of the 177 new mandis, 17 are from Gujarat, 26 from Haryana, one from Jammu and Kashmir, five from Kerala, 54 from Maharashtra, 15 from Odisha, 17 from Punjab, 25 from Rajasthan, 13 from Tamil Nadu, and one from West Bengal. With 177 additional mandis, the total number of eNAM mandis across country is 962, an official release said. Launching the new mandis through video conferencing, Tomar said efforts should be made to strengthen eNAM to benefit the farmers. He said eNAM portal has been envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for ambitious use of technology for the benefit of farmers. Earlier 785 mandis have been integrated with eNAM across 17 states and two Union Territories with a user base of 1.66 crore farmers, 1.30 lakh traders and 71,911 commission agents. As of May 9, total volume of 3.43 crore MT and 37.93 lakh numbers (bamboo and coconut) collectively worth more than Rs 1 lakh crore has been traded on eNAM platform. Digital payment worth Rs 708 crore has been done via the eNAM platform benefitting more than 1.25 lakh farmers. The release said that eNAM facilitates trade beyond mandi/state borders. A total of 236 mandis participated in inter-mandi trade across 12 states whereas 13 states/union territories have participated in the inter-state trade allowing farmers to interact directly with distantly located traders, it said. At present, 150 commodities including food grains, oilseeds, vegetables and fruits, are being traded on eNAM. More than 1,005 FPOs (farmer producer organizations) have been registered on eNAM platform and have traded 2,900 MT of agri-produce worth Rs 7.92 crores, the release said. To de-congest mandis during COVID-19 lockdown situation, FPO trade module, logistics module and eNWR based warehouse module were launched by the minister on April 2. Since then, 82 FPOs from 15 states have traded on eNAM with total quantity of 12,048 quintals of commodities worth Rs 2.22 crore.

Nine logistics service aggregators have partnered with eNAM having 2,31,300 transporters with 11,37,700 trucks to service transportation need of eNAM stakeholders. National Agriculture Market (eNAM) networks the existing APMC mandis to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities with a vision to promote uniformity in agriculture marketing by streamlining of procedures across the integrated markets, removing information asymmetry between buyers and sellers and promoting real time price discovery based on actual demand and supply, the release said. On May 1, Tomar had launched integration of 200 eNAM mandis from seven states including one new state of Karnataka being added on eNAM to help Indian farmers. In addition, the Union Minister had also launched inter-operability between ReMS (Unified Market Portal-UMP) of Karnataka and eNAM portal. (ANI)