Haryana has emerged as the major contributor in terms of total trade value on the e-NAM (National Agriculture Market) platform of the Government.

Trade in agricultural produce has so far been recorded at a value of ₹2.04 lakh crore by 18 States and three union territories on e-NAM platform till June 30. Of them, Haryana’s share was at ₹62,757 crore. This was followed by Rajasthan at ₹38,794 crore and Andhra Pradesh at ₹30,890 crore.

Among the union territories, the agricultural produce trade value recorded in Chandigarh was ₹472 crore. This was registered from one mandi where 7,106 farmers and 114 traders have been registered.

In a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, said the Government is implementing the e-NAM scheme in order to facilitate farmers with remunerative prices for their produce through online competitive bidding system in transparent manner.

Rajasthan leads the pack

Under the scheme, three reforms are mandatory for States and union territories in their respective State Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Acts for integrating their mandis with the e-NAM platform. They are provisions for e-trading, a single-point levy of market fees, and a unified single trading licence for the State. States without APMC Act need to provide legally enforceable guidelines and institutional mechanism for implementing e-NAM, he said.

Mandis are considered for integration by the Government with e-NAM platform based on the proposals received from the compliant states and union territories.

Of the total 1,000 mandis integrated with the platform, Rajasthan led the list with 144 mandis. This was followed by Uttar Pradesh at 125 and Gujarat 122. Maharashtra has integrated 118 mandis with e-NAM platform.

Of the 1.73 crore farmers registered on the e-NAM platform, Uttar Pradesh came first by registering 33 lakh farmers on it. The number of farmers registered on e-NAM stood at 30.21 lakh and 27.25 lakh in Madhya Pradesh and Haryana, respectively.

Of the 2.26 lakh traders registered on the platform, 82,359 traders were from Rajasthan, followed by 35,029 traders from Uttar Pradesh and 22,337 traders from Madhya Pradesh.

FPOs

To another question, Tomar said 8,716 FPOs (farmer producer organisations) produce clusters have been allocated so far to implementing agencies for the formation of FPOs. Of this, 3,179 FPOs have been registered.

The Government has launched the central sector scheme for the formation and promotion of 10,000 FPOs in 2020 with a total budgetary outlay of ₹6,865 crore. These FPOs will leverage economies of scale, reduce of cost of production, and enhance farmers’ income.

Under the scheme, the FPOs are to be developed in produce clusters, wherein agricultural and horticultural produce is grown/cultivated for leveraging economies of scale and improving market access for members.

Formation and promotion of FPOs are to be done through implementing agencies, which further engage cluster-based business organizations to form and provide professional hand-holding support to FPOs for a period of five years.

Crop insurance

To a separate query on the crop insurance claims, the Minister said the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) is mainly implemented on ‘area approach’ basis. Admissible claims are worked out and paid directly to the insured farmer’s account by the insurance companies based on the yield data, based on the requisite number of crop cutting experiments (CCEs), per unit area, furnished to the insurance company by the concerned State government and claim calculation formula envisaged in the operational guidelines of the scheme, subject to receipt of State government’s requisite share in premium subsidy.

However, losses due to localized risks of hailstorm, landslide, inundation, cloud burst and natural fire and post-harvest losses due to cyclone, cyclonic/unseasonal rains and hailstorms are calculated on individual insured farm basis. These claims are assessed by a joint committee comprising representatives of State Government and concerned insurance company.

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