Govt reboots eNAM to draw more farmers

New Delhi: In a move aimed at bringing more farmers on the electronic National Agriculture Market (eNAM) platform, the government on Wednesday unveiled mobile payment facility BHIM, and other features in regional languages as well.

The eNAM website is now available in Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali and Odia besides Hindi and English, while the eNAM trading facility is available in six languages.

The eNAM has been strengthened with features like MIS dashboard for better analysis, BHIM and other mobile payment facilities, enhanced features on a mobile app such as gate entry and payment via mobiles, integration of farmer's database and e-learning module.

"We are gradually adding more features to eNAM to make it robust and convenient for farmers to trade online. eNAM is a new initiative and will take some time to take off smoothly and without any hiccups," said Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh while unveiling the new features.

As many as 479 regulated wholesale mandis have been integrated with eNAM across 14 states and one union territory. And the target is to link 585 mandis by next month, the minister added.

To ensure timely payment to farmers after auctioning of commodities on the platform, the government has introduced Unified Payment Interface (UPI) facility through BHIM.

Currently e-NAM portal provides for online payment to farmers through RTGS/NEFT, debit card and internet banking. Besides making the eNAM mobile app multilingual, the government has introduced a facility for mandi operators to carry out one of the critical operations of 'Gate Entry' directly from the app.

Farmers can also see the real-time bidding progress and assaying certificates through the app. Even buyers on eNAM can do online payment from the app through debit card and net banking. SMS alert will be sent to farmers on receiving payment in their bank account.

Currently, 90 commodities are allowed for trading on eNAM and 11 more commodities will be added soon.