New Delhi: In a major setback, the government's flagship initiative aimed at doubling farmers' income is proving to be a non-starter as just 4 per cent farmers have registered themselves with the electronic national agriculture market (eNAM) platform. According to market experts, the major reason for the 'failure' of the eNAM is non-availability of interstate transaction facility in the electronic mandis.
According to officials, out of total 14 crore farmers, only 52 lakh farmers have joined the eNAM platform as of now. "Given that inter-state transactions are in poor state, farmers and traders are not keen to join the eNAM portal for trading. It's so that the total turnover of eNAM the last one and half years of its launch is just Rs 28 crore," the expert said.
"The e-NAM is not getting the response as what government had anticipated. Since it's a major reform in the agriculture sector and a most important vehicle to transform the lives of farmers by doubling their income in next five years, the government should have made efforts to resolve the inter-state transaction issues," the expert said on the condition of not to be quoted.
According to a senior government official, the eNAM was launched with the objective to bring farmers and traders together on a single platform to help farmers in getting better price of their produce. "The portal was launched to help farmers to sell their produce in any digitally connected mandi, but it's not happening as interstate transactions are not allowed despite the fact that above 400 mandis have been registered with eNAM," the official said.
However, the farmers prefer conventional ways to sell their produce rather than doing business through eNAM. It's worth mentioning that when the eNAM was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April 2016, it was showcased as an initiative that would revive the agriculture sector.
As per government data, 18 states have joined the eNAM and 13 of them have made necessary amendments to rules under their respective APMC Acts. The government has set a target to bring 585 mandis across the country on to the platform by the end of March 2018.
The eNAM is a pan-India electronic trading portal, which networks APMC (agricultural produce market committee) markets to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities, which was launched in April last year.