As part of its push to enhance agricultural marketing through digital platforms, the central government has advised a select group of States to step up inter state trading of farm produce via the electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM). The move precedes the upcoming rollout of e-NAM 2.0, which is expected to require amendments to the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Acts in various States.
On a recent trading day, e-NAM registered inter State sales of 49.7 quintals of groundnut worth INR 2,34,197, 45 quintals of wheat valued at INR 1,13,548, and six quintals of coriander (whole) amounting to INR 43,896. These transactions involved farmers from Rajasthan’s Nimbahera and Ramganj mandis selling to buyers located in Madhya Pradesh’s Neemuch and Mandsaur.
Phased Coordination and Structural Gaps
To facilitate broader participation, the Centre has initiated a phased approach. In the first phase, it has engaged with Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, with these States assuring cooperation to streamline inter state transactions. Once initial progress is observed, a second set of states, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Haryana, and Odisha, will be brought into the initiative. S.K. Singh, Deputy Agricultural Marketing Adviser in the Ministry of Agriculture, has been coordinating with the Mandi Boards of these States to operationalize the plan.
However, agricultural marketing experts indicate that meaningful progress depends on addressing deeper structural issues. They underscore that both Central and State level reforms are necessary for e-NAM to yield the expected outcomes. The Centre has been supporting States in engaging with traders to promote participation on the platform, but adoption remains limited by longstanding challenges.
Trader Trust and Systemic Barriers
Despite visible transactions, several constraints persist. A trader from Madhya Pradesh, speaking on condition of anonymity, stated that while he participated in an online transaction from Rajasthan at the mandi secretary’s request, he normally buys produce using informal contacts, largely commission agents who already have trusted relationships with farmers. This highlights the limited shift from traditional systems to digital trading mechanisms.
A flour mill operator in Jaipur echoed this sentiment, observing that trust in quality assurance continues to reside with local agents. He prefers sourcing wheat from Kota and nearby mandis through familiar intermediaries. These agents not only facilitate credit-based transactions but also mediate disputes, often resolving them through negotiated price adjustments rather than formal claims.
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Need for Legal and Institutional Overhaul
For e-NAM to become a truly national platform, several issues must be addressed. These include implementing a unified licensing system for buyers across all States and establishing third party agencies to certify the quality of produce until it reaches buyers. Another obstacle is the continued applicability of APMC regulations to farmer producer organisations (FPOs), which limits their ability to independently trade through e-NAM.
While Chhattisgarh and some north-eastern States have amended their APMC Acts to permit out of state traders to participate on e-NAM without local registration, this solution does not extend to regions like Bihar or Kerala, which do not have APMC laws. Consequently, traders in these States remain outside the formal regulatory ambit.
Additional concerns relate to the imposition of market fees by local APMCs, even when sales occur at the farmer’s own village. According to sources, for inter state trade to genuinely expand, States must be directed to amend their APMC laws to exempt FPOs from regulatory constraints and enable them to trade independently on the e-NAM platform.
The Centre’s phased outreach strategy, combined with proposed legislative changes and institutional support, marks an attempt to scale up e-NAM’s scope. However, systemic gaps, ranging from trust deficits to regulatory fragmentation, continue to restrict the platform’s transformative potential in agricultural marketing.