E-nam: Why inter-state trade is still a non-starter?

Thispaper examines a few electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) mandis across the country to understand the reasons for the platform’s limited success till date. I chose Nizamabad APMC, Telangana, for field study as it is seen as a successful e-NAM mandiby the government, but only later learnt that there was a lot of work that was unfinished there and it is yet to become a complete ‘online’ market. I argue in the paper that grading of the agricultural produce is a pre-requisite for any market yard to be able to link its farmers to remote traders. Though the Centre gives a large financial grant to states who express interest in joining e-NAM, the success of the platform depends on the implementation at the ground level. Unless the states encourage their farmers to come on-board, use technology advancements in assaying (NIR spectroscopy and image processing) and build the necessary infrastructure at the mandis, e-NAM’s success is not easy.