PM Narendra Modi launches New Electronic Platform for farmers to sell their products online

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has unveiled an electronic trading platform for the National Agricultural Market on Thursday called eNAM for farmers to sell their products. He called this new scheme to be “the turning point” for the agriculture sector of the country.

• This new scheme was launched on the occasion of Dr. B R Ambedkar’s 125^th birth anniversary in Madhya Pradesh. The Prime Minister said that previously the farmers used to get to know the fate of their crops produced only after reaching Mandis. But e-NAM will enable them to decide where and when their production will be sold and at what price.
• This scheme aims for the wholesome empowerment of the farmers. The e-NAM trading mechanism aims to integrate 585 regulated wholesale markets or agriculture produce market committees (APMCs) under one electronic platform within the couple of years. Under this new platform, the farmers will initially be able to sell their produce through ‘Mandis’ within the state. Howver, the scheme will be extended in the whole country by 2017, which therefore will allow the farmers to sell the products to any wholesale market across the country.
• The e-NAM will enable the farmers to sell their produce to the highest bidders therefore getting good price in return. The new scheme aims to integrate 21 mandis in eight states such as- Uttar Pradesh (6 mandis), Gujarat (3), Telangana (5), Rajasthan (1), Madhya Pradesh (1), Haryana (2), Jharkhand (1) and Himachal Pradesh (2).
• 200 crore has been allocated for this new scheme and at the same time 25 major commodities like wheat, paddy, maize, onion, jowar, bajra, groundnut, potato, soyabean and mustard seed have been selected to be traded on the new platform. But Agricultural Minister Radha Mohan Singh said that due too the price fluctuation of fruits and vegetables, they have not yet been included in the platform.

(Source: The Indian Express)