e-NAM is a government initiative taken up by our prime minister Shri Narendra Modi & was founded on 14 April 2016. It is an online trading platform that induces transparency in the process of buying & selling agricultural goods where the farmers and traders benefit from extra profits as compared to the previous methods. According to the latest data, around 1.75 crores of farmers have registered themselves on eNAM in the year 2022, and as of now, 2.5 lakh crores of money has been transferred through means of online transactions with the use of the app.
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What is e-NAM?
e-NAM is a central government-funded initiative that helps in the trading of commodities between rural and urban areas, primarily helping farmers to trade digitally with traders all across the country. It allows farmers to update their profiles by including the list of commodities they can provide and the traders to involve themselves in businesses digitally. It allows pan India access to be able to trade with businessmen from different states. The traders are free to choose their own selective choice, the one which is financially feasible to them can be accounted for options. Overall it provides a platform for the farmers to be able to sell without any loss of money to the middlemen which was earlier not possible due to physical trade options.
e-NAM Commodities
The e-NAM consists of several commodities concerned with the agricultural sector such as cereals, wheat, rice, pulses, seeds, vegetables such as drumsticks, chilies, carrots, sweet potatoes, etc. According to the latest data, as of now around 219 commodities have been dealt with and traded across the country. It serves the purpose of creating a national market that leads to the trading of agricultural commodities that range from fruits to vegetables, cereals and pulses, seeds, and other grains.
How does e-NAM Operate?
Every farmer at any corner of the country, be it rural or urban should be able to access the application and through digital means, the demand & supply ratio must increase. With the inclusion of POP – Platform of Platforms on 14th July, 2022 the farmers now have the approval of accessing & performing trade outside their state borders, all over India.
- MIS (Management Information System) had been introduced inn February 2018 to keep a track of every minute detail available for the goods and services. This helped in increasing the application’s performance and the user gained access to much more secure and reliable data. It’s task is to collect data regarding agricultural commodities, crops, food available etc.
- Digitalized approach ensures safer means to trade and perform e-auction, that helps farmers stay stress free about the money they are about to receive and the goods they are about to supply, where and to whom. It enhances the growth of farmers on the basis of economical level as the exploitation by the middlemen reduce and so does the dependency.
- Beneficiary Buyers is the term that fits here the most appropriate as the buyers are the ones most benefitted due to this scheme. It not only grants the availability of many options to the consumer, but it also provides a wide price ranging option, from maximum price to a minimum price.
e-NAM & Its Role in the Agriculture Industry
eNAM’s website holds several missions and objectives which it aims to achieve in the future. It is looked by Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, the agricultural minister of India & handed by Agricultural Ministry of India.
- Uniformity & Transparency: It aims to achieve a unified and transparent system of governance over the sell and take of agricultural commodities. It creates a uniformity for all the farmers & traders and each one of them is allowed to sell & buy goods according to their wish.
- Removal of Mediators: By the action of removal of middlemen, it has become easier and beneficial for farmers to access their money directly from the consumers. Else in previous scenarios, the middlemen were benefitted of the communication between farmers & consumers and they could fill their pockets by supporting their arguments of being mediators. However, by the use of eNAM, the dependency on them by farmers decreases and the money is directly received by the farmers from the payer and into the bank account.
e-NAM & Its Constituents
Many people inclusive of farmers, buyers, traders are all benefitted from this initiative as it has been beneficial in many aspects and has improvised the trading between farmers and other traders.
- Farmers: e-NAM has reduced the dependency of farmers on mediators/middlemen who earlier used to deprive the farmers of their income. Through the app there is a direct conversation between the seller(farmer) and buyer(trader), and the complete income is received by the farmers.
- Traders(Buyers): e-NAM allows traders to choose from various options they have on the application. According to the commodities, or their choice of suppliers, the traders have complete freedom to choose with whom they want to trade. Apart from this, there exists a direct communication between the farmer and trader.
e-NAM Objective
The main objectives that the agricultural ministry wishes to achieve through eNAM are as follows:
1. Digitalisation
To transform the experience to a seamlessly wholesome process of selling, the website has been launched to make a digitally powerful India. The application has been created with an objective such that it is highly user interactive and can be accessed by people living in remote areas as well. It is completely an online auction trade which enables every trader to look out for other possible options.
2. Openness & Clarity
It aims to achieve a streamlined process while removal of information asymmetry. All the information & data regarding available goods and their demand & supply need to be clear so that every person can connect through the platform, be it from rural or urban area.
3. Pan India Access
It aims to make it accessible for all in the country such that every farmer can trade with any businessmen irrespective of state boundaries. The app does it all. Simply the farmer has to enter his details regarding the commodities he wants to sell and the trader can access it. This has increased trading opportunities and across the country irrespective of where the farmer or trader lives.
e-NAM Mission
The mission of e-NAM is to provide a pan India access to the farmers dealing with agricultural commodities, so as in to digitalize the process of selling and integrate APMCs (Agricultural Product Market Committee) with the market to facilitate trade options for both the farmers and consumers. The introduction of options such as posting images, reviewing all details of product has made the application even more viable to use that has thereby increased the reliance on technological aspects of selling.
e-NAM Benefits
e-NAM has released several new key features in it’s application such as different processes of payment, such as net banking, debit cards, or credit cards, payment through different banks, all looked into by Kotak Mahindra Bank. This has reduced the dependency on a particular method of payment. It also helps in adding transparency and open ended network to the app as it allows the customer to choose from varied sources. Apart from this, it has this new MIS System which means Management Information System, to manage all the data the application holds alongwith certain details of the farmer.
e-NAM Latest News
The following are the latest news regarding e-NAM:
- In February 2018, MIS (Management Information System) was introduced that specified different sub groups that can hold information regarding farmers and their agricultural products which they wish to sell. Apart from this it also holds the recent transactional details.
- In July 2022, POP (Platform of Platforms) was introduced that allowed the business across different state boundaries. The farmers could access their buyers from the app and could perform all the tasks digitally and send the required agricultural products to different states as and how conversed on the application.
- Recently, the ICICI Bank has launched a bank to bank payment transfer method called the Pay2corp. It provides feasibility of bank transfer methods as it allows multiple modes of payments through the same application thus reducing dependency on more than one platforms.
eNAM UPSC
e-NAM is an important topic for the UPSC Prelims examination including several other papers of Mains. For General Studies Paper III, the topics concerning Agriculture are asked and e-NAM is a part of this. In General Studies Paper II as well for economic development and technology, questions regarding integration of technology and agriculture can be asked. This article covers all concepts regarding the Mission, Objective and key benefits of e-NAM which will be helpful for the preparation of UPSC Examination.
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FAQs on e-NAM
1. What is meant by e-NAM?
e-NAM is a government operated initiative referred to as e-National Agriculture Market, an application to allow trading across multiple states between farmers and traders to buy commodities and other agricultural products.
2. What are the benefits of e-NAM for farmers?
The farmers are allowed to trade with buyers all across the country irrespective of the places wherever they live. It initiates a direct discussion with trader as there is no involvement of middlemen that directs all the money to the farmer.
3. What is the role of e-NAM?
e-NAM provides a platform to the farmers & traders to engage with each others. It enhances clarity and provides a pan India access to the farmers, that is, trade with anyone & anywhere across the country.
4. What is the function of e-NAM?
e-NAM helps in taking decisions from the farmer’s side as to whosoever provides him with maximum buy price, the farmer can directly contact with that particular trader without any second thought.
5. What is the aim of e-NAM?
The main aim of e-NAM is to serve the digital purpose of India, thereby evolving it into a digitalised country where in the farmers or anyone can access their means of bread & butter by digital means.