National Agriculture Market: Key Facts To Know

What is e-National Agriculture Market?

• It is a pan-India electronic trading platform launched by Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare to network the existing Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs) to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities. 
• NAM is a “virtual” market but it has a physical market (mandi) at the back end. 
• It facilitates farmers, traders, buyers, exporters and processors with a common platform for trading commodities. 

• According to Press Information Bureau, so far, 417 markets from 13 states have been integrated with e-National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) against the set target of 400 markets by March 2017. 
• The Portal is managed by Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) appointed by the Ministry in association with a group of strategic partner selected for the purpose. 
• Traders and exporters need to get themselves registered with the portal to access its services. 
• 69 commodities including staple food grains, vegetables and fruits are currently listed in its list of commodities available for trade 
• As per the approved e-NAM Scheme, 585 regulated mandis across the country are to be integrated with the portal by March 2018. 

Why in News?

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs(CCEA) had approved a Central Sector Scheme for Promotion of National National Agricultural Market through Agri-Tech Infrastructure Fund (ATIF). The government has allocated Rs. 200 crore to the newly created ATIF. With this fund SFAC will implement NAM for three years from 2015-16 to 2017-18.

Implementation Agency e-National Agriculture Market

• Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) is the Implementation agency of NAM. 
• SFAC is a registered society of Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers’ Welfare (DAC&FW) under Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare. 
• SFAC through an open tender selects a Strategic Partner (SP) to develop, operate and maintain the NAM e-platform. 
• SFAC implements NAM with the technical support of SP and budgetary grant support from DAC&FW. 

Benefits of NAM

• According to Ministry of Finance, NAM will have the following future benefits: 
• For the farmers, NAM provides more options for sale. It will increase Farmers' access to markets through warehouse based sales and thus obviate the need to transport his produce to the mandi. 
• For the local trader in the mandi/market, NAM provides the opportunity to access a larger national market for secondary trading. 
• Bulk buyers, processors, exporters, etc. will benefit from being able to participate directly in trading at the local mandi/market level through the NAM platform, thus reducing their intermediation costs. 
• Integration of all the major mandis in the States into NAM will ensure common procedures for issue of licences, levy of fee and movement of produce. In a period of 5-7 years Union Cabinet expects significant benefits through higher returns to farmers, lower transaction costs to buyers and stable prices and availability to consumers. 
• The NAM will also facilitate the emergence of value chains in major agricultural commodities across the country and help to promote scientific storage and movement of agricultural goods. 

Key Terms:

Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs): Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) is a statutory market committee constituted by a State Government in respect of trade in certain notified agricultural or horticultural or livestock products, under the Agricultural Produce Market Committee Act issued by that state government.

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