Exploring farmers perceived constraints of e-NAM

Abstract

National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) was launched on 14 th April 2016 as a pan-India electronic trading portal by the Government of India to network the existing Agricultural Produce Market Committees to create a unified agricultural commodities market in the country. It intends to provide remunerative prices to agricultural produce of farmers and real-time price discovery based on actual demand and supply. However, several anomalies, both at personal and organizational levels, thwarted the ultimate goal of providing remunerative prices for the farmer's produce. Since its inception, the scheme has faced various challenges in its implementation. The present investigation was undertaken in 2020 by using an exploratory research design to identify and analyse various constraints and suggestions perceived by e-NAM registered farmers. For constraints and suggestions analysis, a sample of 120 e-NAM registered farmers was taken purposively from Bhattiprolu, Kollur, Kollipara, Tenali, Mangalagiri and Duggirala mandals of Guntur district. The data were collected by personal interview method through a semi-structured interview schedule. Lack of remunerative prices (85.83%), cartelization of traders (80.83%) and lack of comprehension of the e-NAM trading process (75.83%) were the major economic, operational and technological constraints respectively faced by the e-NAM registered farmers. The major suggestions expressed by them were bid prices should start from MSP (94.16%), payment settlement on the same day of trading (90.83%) and Provision of live trading experience (89.16%). The integration process of APMCs, FPO trading modules, warehouse-based trading modules etc. should be hastened.