Taking National Agriculture Market, or eNAM, a step forward, a farmer from Haldwani in Uttarakhand sold his tomato crop to a trader in Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh in the first-ever inter-State transaction on the online trading platform, an official statement said here on Thursday.

Similar inter-State transactions between e-NAM mandis in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh in potatoes, brinjal and cauliflower since 2019 have commenced, the statement issued by the Agriculture Ministry said.

“To facilitate inter State trade between the e-NAM States, the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare conducted a series of coordination meetings with the States concerned and Mandi board officials. As a result of these interactions, both the States have now facilitated licensing of traders of each other for inter-State trade on the e-NAM portal,” it said.

One of the major issues that hinders seamless transactions on eNAM, which is supposed to act as a pan-India electronic trading (e-trading) portal, is the non-availability of a trading licence for traders other than those from the home State. The Government has been pushing the States to adopt a universal licence, very similar to the way a driving licence issued by one State is recognised in other States.

According to the statement, the e-NAM platform has an inter-State dashboard to promote inter-State trade. So far, 585 regulated markets in 16 States and 2 Union Territories have been integrated with the e-NAM platform. Another 415 markets are expected to be on the platfoirm by March 2020.

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