Growth of e-mandi in India- A Review

Abstract

India is an agriculture dominant economy with about 54.6% of total workforce engaged in agriculture. The role of agriculture marketing is crucial as it involves the monetary aspects and returns to the farmer The agriculture market faces issues like price volatility, dominance of middlemen, high price spread, cartel formation, inadequate infrastructure, postharvest losses, high transportation cost etc. The issue pertaining to the dominance of middle men was solved with the introduction of electronic National Agriculture Market (eNAM). This paper tries to understand the concept of eNAM and its growth in India since its inception through literature review. It links the farmers at a national platform and enables him to sell his produce to buyer/trader of any state who quotes the highest price. Thus enables better price discovery. The target of covering 585 mandi has been achieved and all that is required now is to ensure proper functioning, infrastructure development, grading provision and maximum participation of farmers in e-trading.