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Agri ministry organises maiden nat’l workshop on agri-logistics in e-NAM
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Wednesday, 22 January, 2020, 14 : 00 PM [IST]
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Our Bureau, New Delhi
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The Ministry for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare organised the first National consultative workshop on Strengthening Agri-logistics in e-National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) in New Delhi yesterday.
Speaking on the occasion, Narendra Singh Tomar, minister for agriculture and farmers’ welfare, said that agriculture was very important for the country, as there was a large population engaged in agriculture.
He stated that strengthening agriculture and the rural economy will strengthen India, so that the country can face challenges victoriously. The government is also committed to realising Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of doubling farmers’ incomes by 2022.
Tomar said that the government was committed to strengthening the economy and infrastructure of rural areas, so that every facility was available to villagers at their doorsteps.
He lauded the efforts of farmers, agricultural scientists and the Central and state governments for achieving self-ssufficiency in foodgrains, horticulture and animal husbandry.
Tomar suggested that the disparity between small farmers and big farmers should be bridged, and benefits of technology and various schemes should reach the small and marginal farmers.
The minister told the audience that the greatest challenge in present times is to provide farmers the correct price for their produce. For this, the Prime Minister envisioned the e-NAM that envisages a pan-India e-trading facility for agricultural commodities through integration of existing APMCs (agricultural produce market committees).
Market integration through e-platform facilitates transparent and competitive bidding by enabling inter-mandi trade of the agricultural produce, thereby giving advantage to the farmers for better price discovery.
Presently, 585 markets across 16 states and two Union Territories (UTs) have been integrated on the e-platform. It is expected that 415 other mandis will soon be integrated.
On this portal, over 1.65 crore farmers and 1.27 lakh traders have registered. Through this platform, trading of Rs 91,000 crore has already taken place, and in the near future, it is expected to reach Rs 1 lakh crore.
Strengthening the e-NAM platform, and making it reliable is the constant effort of the agriculture and farmers’ welfare ministry. The minister said that it was the priority of the government that small farmers in large numbers join this platform.
On strengthening agri-logistics, Tomar suggested that agri-logistics started with harvesting. Along with harvesting, cleaning, grading, segregating, quality inspection, packaging and marketing have to be done so that the journey from production to consumer is completed.
The workshop addressed all these problems that farmers faced and the suggestions given by the Prime Minister.
Tomar emphasised that technology should reach the farmer, micro-irrigation should be used to save water, there should be less usage of chemical fertilisers, input cost should be reduced, farmers should get a good price via MSP (minimum support price).
He said that schemes like PM-Kisan Samman Yojana, Man-Dhan Yojana and PM-Fasal Bima Yojana were showing good results. He expressed hope that through this workshop, the entire food value chain could be linked resulting in an effective agri-logistics infrastructure which will help strengthening e-NAM for the farmers.
In the national consultative workshop, over 200 prominent professionals, educationists, practitioners of agri-logistics, cleaning, grading, productivity analysis, quality management, warehousing and transportation and logistics start-ups participated.
Senior officials from various states across the country were present. Minister of State for agriculture and farmers’ welfare Purushottam Rupala and agriculture secretary Sanjay Aggrawal also participated in the workshop.
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