One of the special features at Global Rajasthan Agritech Meet 2016’ (GRAM) will be the proactive promotion of the ‘online mandis’. The large number of farmers who will be attending the mega agri event at Jaipur in November are likely to benefit from the consultancy that will be provided to them for registering in the electronic National Agriculture Market (eNAM). This was informed by the Principal Secretary, Agriculture, Government of Rajasthan, Ms. Neelkamal Darbari today.

Principal Secretary further added that the concept of online mandis has already started to bring in more transparency, greater competition and better returns for the farmers.

It is to be recalled that the Union Government launched an electronic National Agriculture Market (eNAM) format in April 2016 and connected 23 mandis from eight states including Rajasthan. By 30 September, around 200 mandis have been connected online out of which 11 are from Rajasthan. These are Ramganj Mandi, Padampur, Fatehnagar, Gangapur City, Bundi, Baran, Kota Anaj, Atru, Merta, Nagaur and Hindaun. The State Agriculture Department is targeting to add 15 more mandis to eNAM.

Principal Secretary also said that the e-platform would help farmers to sell their produce directly in the market, obviating middle-men, through the electronic trading platform. The initiative will help traders in open price discovery and greater accessibility owing to the online platform, she added.

To make it easy for the investors, Government of India has come up with online registration of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) with a unique ID – Udyog Aadhar. Rajasthan is among the first states to implement filing of Udyog Aadhar memorandum completely online. The Single Window System facilitates application, approval, clearance and tracking online through a single ID making it easy for investors to make online application and payment through e-mitra portal as well.

The Director, Marketing, Rajasthan Department of Agriculture, Mr. Dinesh Yadav said that to encourage the farmer community to get involved with online mandis during ‘GRAM’ – its procedure and benefits will be explained in detail to them. There will be a section dedicated wherein farmers will be able to clear their doubts on the concept of online mandis, he said.

Jaipur, 8th October 2016