MillenniumPost
Bengal

Govt brings 17 markets in 14 districts under E-Nam

Kolkata: The West Bengal State Marketing Board has already brought 17 markets in 14 districts in the state under the E-Nam platform that creates a network of the existing agri markets or krishak bazaars to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities.

More than 4,066 farmers, 625 traders including commission agents and 54 farmers/producers have already been registered in the E-Nam platform in Bengal.

"Our target is to bring 100 markets in the state under E-Nam platform by 2020-21. This platform is a major stride in ensuring that the farmers get access to a nationwide market and get prices commensurate with the quality of their produce. It promotes uniformity by streamlining the procedures across the integrated markets and removes lack of information between buyers and sellers," a senior official of the board said.

National Agriculture Market (NAM) is a pan-India electronic trading portal that creates a unified market through online trading platform both at national and state levels. Three markets located at Bethuadahari, Nakashipara and Karimpur in Nadia and one each in North 24-Parganas, Hooghly, South 24-Parganas, East Midnapore, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar, Siliguri, North Dinajpur, South Dinajpur, Murshidabad, Birbhum, East Burdwan and Bankura have come under E-Nam.

The project was rolled out by the Union Ministry of Agriculture Cooperation and Farmers Welfare on April 14, 2016, across the country and Bengal started its implementation from March 1 this year.

"We have made necessary amendments in the West Bengal Agricultural Produce Marketing (Regulation) Act and rules for incorporating e-trading through the E-Nam portal," the official said.

The board, with the approval of the state government, has already created infrastructure like providing computers with printers, weighing machines, digital display boards and deployment of skilled personnel in these 17 markets to assist registration and e-trading through the portal.

It may be mentioned that the department has already started the process of setting up assaying laboratories with state-of-the-art quality detection machinery and equipment in the 17 markets under E-Nam for quality analysis and grading of the farm produces brought by the farmers.

"Now the farmers are able to trade intra-state among the 17 markets in the state. For inter-state online trading, the items' quality certificate needs to be in place. We are taking all possible measures towards this," the official maintained.

More than 585 markets in the country have already come under the E-Nam umbrella. Till the month of August, 127 metric tonnes of produce has been e-traded with a transaction value of Rs 17 lakh.

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