2177 FPOs onboard eNAM trading module
Author: BI Bureau
New Delhi: As many as 2177 FPOs have been on-boarded on the National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) platform. The government had launched the FPO trading module during Covid-19 pandemic to enable FPOs to upload their produce from collection centres or farm gates with picture or quality parameters for online bidding without physically bringing their produce to the grain markets.
Under the e-NAM scheme, the Government of India is providing assistance up to Rs 75 lakh per grain market for related hardware, infrastructure including for quality assaying equipment and for creation of infrastructure like cleaning, grading, sorting, packaging and compost unit, etc.
An established quality assaying lab in e-NAM grain market is a requisite for Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs) that assess and certify the quality of produce, which helps farmers in getting prices commensurate with quality of their produce. Further, provision has been made in the FPO trading module wherein FPOs can upload their produce from collection centres or farm gate with picture/ quality parameters.
According to Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar, Platform of Platforms module (PoP) has been launched to integrate the various platforms of service providers operational in Agri Value Chain with e-NAM. Under PoP, various service providers including Quality Assayers are empanelled for the benefit of stakeholders.
PoP will enable Farmers, FPOs, Traders and other stakeholders to access a range of services offered by multiple service providers, thereby increasing choice to the stakeholders. Further the e-NAM platform is made interoperable with Rashtriya e-Market Services Private Limited (ReMS) platform of the Government of Karnataka which will facilitate famers of either platform to sell their produce in other platforms thereby increasing their market access. /BI/
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The exports of agricultural commodities from March to June 2020 shot up by 23.24 percent on-year to Rs 25,552.7 crores.
As the economy comes to a standstill amid the coronavirus-led lockdown, India’s agriculture sector has taken the baton of economic growth in its hands. The exports of agricultural commodities from March to June 2020 shot up by 23.24 percent on-year to Rs 25,552.7 crores, according to the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. The government said that self-reliant agriculture is critical for the goal of an Atmanirbhar Bharat and for this, agricultural export is extremely important as besides earning foreign exchange for the country, the exports help farmers, producers, and exporters to take advantage of the wider international market and increase their income.
The surge in exports has also resulted in increased production in the farm sector by increasing coverage area and productivity. The share of India’s agricultural exports and imports in the world agriculture trade in 2017 was 2.27 percent and 1.90 percent, respectively. Even during the difficult time of pandemic lockdown, India took care not to disturb the world food supply chain and continued to export, the government said.
Ministry of Agriculture has prepared a comprehensive action plan for the promotion of Agri trade; the twofold approach focuses on boosting Agri Export with emphasis on value addition and action plan for Import Substitution. Recently, the Agriculture sector has witnessed a series of reforms, giving more choices to the farmers to sell their produce at competitive rates.
To mention a few, the Export strategy focuses on the export promotion of fast-evolving niche markets of Wellness food/ Health-conscious food/nutraceuticals, Development of “Brand India” in campaign mode to help penetration into new foreign markets and of new products which automatically translates into higher value realization, Gulf countries have been identified as focus destination to increase the market share which is a strong market for India though presently India caters to only 10-12% share of their total imports. A product-market matrix has been made containing a list of products of strength that could be expanded in new geographies and a list of known markets which can be introduced with newer products.
At the behest of the Department of Agricultural Cooperation & Farmers’ Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture, product-specific Export Promotion Forums have been created to lead Agri exports to new heights. Each Export Promotion Forum shall be having exporters of the related commodity as its members along with official members representing concerned Ministries/Departments of the Central and State Governments. Chairman APEDA shall be the chairman of each of these forums. The forums will meet at least once every two months, to discuss recommendations on issues pertaining to the export.
The recommendations of the forum will be placed in the product committee / Authority of APEDA. The Forum will keep in close contact with the concerned organization of the Ministry of Agriculture such as MIDH, Extension, NPPO, etc., DGFT, Ministry of Civil Aviation, MoFPI, etc. to further the interest of agricultural export.
