Govt to link 400 mandis on electronic trade platform this month

The government will link 400 of the 585 wholesale mandis in India with the electronic national agriculture market (e-NAM) by this month end to ensure that farmers get better rates for their produce, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said today.

The rest will be linked by next March, he said.

Singh said the government's focus is on increasing output of agriculture as well as allied sectors and reducing production costs to double the farmers' income by 2022.

He also said that India will produce 22 million tonnes of pulses this year and is expected to become self-sufficient in this area within 2-3 years. The current demand for pulses is about 25 million tonnes.

"We will link 400 mandis on electronic trading platform e-NAM by end of this month and all 585 mandis by March 2018 under the e-NAM programme," Singh said after inaugurating the 3-day Krishi Unnati Mela here.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in April last year launched e-NAM on a pilot basis with 22 mandis in eight states. As many as 250 mandis were integrated till September last year. The government has made arrangements for conducting wholesale market through e-NAM in the whole country so that the farmers may sell their products at reasonable price, he had said.