One Nation, One Agricultural Market: E-NAM Now Facilitates Direct Inter-State Trade Using E-Payments

For the first time, two mandis situated in different states can now trade directly without intermediaries and digital payments will be used to settle the transactions through the e-NAM portal.

Earlier, trade could only take place between mandis situated within an Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) or between two APMCs located within the same state. APMCs are regulated markets for notified agricultural or horticultural or livestock products, based on geography. A state can have more than one APMC.

The government has stated inter-state trade is already underway through e-NAM. The very first Inter State transaction in tomatoes has been carried out between a trader of Bareilly (e-NAM APMC of Uttar Pradesh) and farmer of Haldwani (e-NAM APMC of Uttarakhand).

“Similarly, inter-State transactions in potatoes, brinjal and cauliflower have been carried out between the e-NAM mandis of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. In all the cases, e-payments have been made through e-NAM portal,” a government release noted.

This facility is expected to provide farmers with better market access, more buyers/ traders and help them realise better prices for their produce.

e-NAM

In 2016, PM Modi launched e-NAM, a pan-India electronic trading portal which networks the existing APMC mandis to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities.

The NAM Portal provides a single window service for all APMC related information and services. This includes commodity arrivals and prices, buy and sell trade offers, provision to respond to trade offers, among other services.

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