Hazaribagh farmers are making money via eNAM app amid lockdown

At a time, when farmers across the country are worried about selling their produce, the ones in Hazaribagh are using much-evolved eNAM app to deal with lockdown-led procurement challenges. This online market aims at reducing transaction costs, bridging information asymmetries, and helping expansion of market access for farmers.

Hazaribagh:When businesses across the country are facing a massive financial blow due to nationwide lockdown owing to coronavirus spread, farmers in Jharkhand's Hazaribagh are selling their produce through eNAM app and are getting benefited.

At a time, when farmers across the country are worried about selling their produce, the ones in Hazaribagh are using much evolved e-platform to deal with lockdown-led procurement challenges.

eNAM app has proved to be a boon for the farmers of Harazibagh district of the state, at a time, when social distancing has become mandatory to combat the deadly disease.

As per reports, in Hazaribagh, through the market committee, farmers have sold around 125 metric tons of food grains and 120 metric tons of wheat. The selling of mustard is in the process.

As per sources, this year between 29 March to 12 April, the farmers here have recieved around Rs 27 lakh 16 thousand for their grains through online payment. The initiative of Hazaribagh Bazar Samiti has become a great example for the farmers across the nation in order to deal with the ongoing crisis. Apart from Hazaribagh, eNAM is also being used in Garhwa district of the state, but farmers there have only earned Rs.88,000 so far.

Ashok Mehta, a farmer from Barka Khurd village of the district has also sold his grain through online eNam portal.

"Earlier, I was worried about how the grain (wheat) produced in the field will go to the market at the time of lockdown, but then eNam portal, through which farmers can sell the produce on their own, came to my rescue," he said.

"Not only from Hazaribagh, but businessmen from all over the country use the online portal to buy and sell crops. The most important thing is that the farmers get the money in their account within 24 hours," he added.

Secretary of Hazaribagh Agricultural Produce Market Committee Rakesh Kumar Singh said that eNam is a good platform for farmers to sell their produce during lockdown.

"In the current situation, social distancing between farmer and the businessman is also followed and the sale of food grains also takes place at a reasonable price via the app," he said.

What is eNAM App?

eNAM, is a pan-India electronic trading portal that was launched on April 14, 2016 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to help network the existing mandis to 'One Nation, One Market' for agricultural commodities. Over 90 commodities including staple food grains, vegetables and fruits are currently listed in its list of commodities available for trade.

This online market aims at reducing transaction costs, bridging information asymmetries, and helping expansion of market access for farmers.The eNAM markets are proving popular as the crops are weighed immediately and the stock is lifted on the same day and the payments are cleared online.

At present, there is a network of 585 mandis integrated with e-NAM across 16 states and two UTs, with user base of 1.66 crore farmers, 1.28 lakh traders and 70,934 commission agents.