New Delhi, Dec 20 (NationPress) The government's National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) initiative, which facilitates the online trading of Agriculture and Horticulture products, has successfully recorded a trading volume of Rs 3.79 lakh crore, as disclosed in Parliament on Friday. This platform enables transparent price discovery for farmers through a competitive online bidding process.

As of October 31, a total of 1,389 mandis from 23 states and 4 Union Territories (UTs) have been integrated with the e-NAM platform. Currently, there are 1.78 crore farmers, 2.62 lakh traders, and over 4,250 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) registered on e-NAM, as stated by the Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare, Ram Nath Thakur, in a written response to the Rajya Sabha.

The minister highlighted that e-NAM is a demand-driven scheme. The integration of mandis into the e-NAM platform is based on requests received from state governments and Union Territories, showcasing their demand and preparedness.

Mandis are added to the platform after meeting the requisite infrastructure and technical specifications outlined in the e-NAM operational guidelines.

As of October 31, 2024, the state-wise distribution of mandis integrated with the e-NAM platform includes Tamil Nadu with 157, Rajasthan 145, Gujarat 144, Madhya Pradesh 139, Maharashtra 133, Haryana 108, and Punjab 79.

The e-NAM portal serves as a single-window solution for all APMC-related information and services, including commodity arrivals, quality and prices, buying and selling offers, and e-payment settlements directly into farmers' accounts, among other features.

This pan-India electronic trading platform connects existing Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) mandis to establish a unified national market for agricultural commodities.

Launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 14, 2016, the e-NAM platform enhances marketing opportunities for farmers, allowing them to sell their produce through an online competitive and transparent pricing system along with an online payment feature.