Govt reboots eNAM to draw more farmers

In a bid to engage more farmers on the electronic National Agriculture Market (eNAM) platform, the government today unveiled mobile payment facility BHIM, and other features in regional languages as well.
The eNAM website is now available in Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali and Odia besides Hindi and English, while the eNAM trading facility is available in six languages.
The eNAM has been strengthened with features like MIS dashboard for better analysis, BHIM and other mobile payment facilities, enhanced features on mobile app such as gate entry and payment via mobiles, integration of farmers database and e-learning module.
"We are gradually adding more features to eNAM to make it robust and convenient for farmers to trade online. eNAM is a new initiative and will take some time to take off smoothly and without any hiccups," Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said unveiling the new features.

As many as 479 regulated wholesale mandis have been integrated with eNAM across 14 states and one union territory. And the target is to link 585 mandis by next month, he added.
To ensure timely payment to farmers after auctioning of commodities on the platform, the government has introduced Unified Payment Interface (UPI) facility through BHIM.

Currently e-NAM portal provides for online payment to farmers through RTGS/NEFT, debit card and internet banking. Besides making the eNAM mobile app multilingual, the government has introduced a facility for mandi operators to carry out one of the critical operations of 'Gate Entry' directly from the app.

Farmers can also see the real-time bidding progress and assaying certificates through app.
Even buyers on eNAM can do online payment from the app through debit card and net banking. SMS alert will be sent to farmers on receiving payment in their bank account.
That apart, a grievance redressal management system is being set up at mandis to flag technology issues related to portal/ software and its operation and also track the status of redressal online.
Moreover, the website has been improved with more informative features like live status of markets of e-NAM based on gate entry, latest information on events, dynamic training calendar etc.

E-Learning module in Hindi has also been incorporated in the website so that various stakeholders can learn about how to operate the system and continuously get trained at their convenience.
The MIS dashboard has been introduced to provide a greater insight into the performance of each mandi in terms of arrival and trade.
This will help the Mandi Board officials and APMC Secretary to compare the performance of each mandi on daily, weekly, monthly/quarterly and year-on-year basis.
Currently, 90 commodities are allowed for trading on eNAM and 11 more commodities will be added soon.