Centre rolls back use of revamped agriculture trading portal in most Rajasthan mandis

The 10 mandis where the electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM 2.0) is currently in use will also have e-NAM 1.0 running in parallel, so that farmers receive proper handholding during the transition to the new system, they said.

“The ministry opted for a phased approach to avoid any disruption to auctions, billing or payments during peak arrivals, ensuring that farmers can continue using the current platform until the upgraded system is proven stable,” said one of the two persons cited above. Under the revised plan, e-NAM 1.0 will remain fully operational while e-NAM 2.0 is piloted in the selected mandis to assess trade volumes, settlement efficiency and system reliability, this person said.

The ministry will roll out the new platform across all 173 mandis in Rajasthan only after the pilot demonstrates smooth, uninterrupted operations, said the second person.

In response to a Mint query, the agriculture ministry’s Small Farmers’ Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC) said that after the pilot launch of e-NAM 2.0 in Rajasthan, certain suggestions and issues have been reported. The team is working on incorporating the suggestions and resolving the issues.

“Meanwhile, it has been decided to carry out operations through e-NAM 1.0 in Rajasthan and to restrict rollout to 10 mandis in Rajasthan,” it said.

Tonk, Jodhpur and Sujangarh are among the 10 mandis where the pilot version of e-NAM 2.0 is being operated.

Plenty of glitches

Mint on 8 December reported that the government’s move to help farmers with greater market access through its revamped digital platform, the electronic National Agriculture Market, has seen disruptions and Rajasthan’s market committees reported data mismatches, user identification problems and disruptions in mandi operations after the old system was shut down, even as onboarding for the new version continues.

E-NAM is one of the government’s flagship digital reforms for agriculture, connecting about 18 million farmers through 1,522 mandis on the platform, out of nearly 7,500 regulated mandis nationwide. The platform aims to enhance price discovery, reduce cartelization, and enable farmers to sell beyond their local mandis, thereby helping them secure better returns and increase their income.

“Farmers have now been allowed to operate through e-NAM, which had been completely discontinued following the launch of e-NAM 2.0 on 3 November,” said Raghunath Ram, secretary, Krishi Upaj Mandi Samiti, Nagaur, Rajasthan. The transition disrupted the sale of produce, and as a result, farmers had no option but to sell their agricultural goods at the physical mandi. “They lost access to competitive bidding from multiple mandis and had to rely only on the traders present locally on that day, which reduced competition and could lead to lower prices,” he said.

Nagaur is one of the mandis that sees large arrivals of major cash crops, particularly spices such as cumin (jeera) and fennel seeds (saunf). In Nagaur mandi, located in the west of the state, peak arrivals also include green gram (moong), cluster bean (guar), and moth bean.

This will help farmers adapt to the new version without any disruption in the sale of their crops, Ram said, adding that the government’s decision is timely as the arrival season is at its peak.

Increasing farmers’ access

“Allowing farmers to shift back to e-NAM 1.0 is a practical step because the sudden rollout of e-NAM 2.0 had disrupted sales on the ground,” Dharmendra Malik, national spokesperson Bhartiya Kisan Union (Arajnaitik). With both systems running in tandem for now, farmers can continue to receive fair prices while gradually becoming accustomed to the new platform, he added.

The rollout of the e-NAM 2.0 pilot commenced on 3 November across all 173 mandis in Rajasthan, following the selection of Akal Information System Ltd as the technology partner through a competitive tender process. The contract, valued at over ₹25 crore for four years, can be extended for four years.

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on 25 July, minister of state for agriculture and farmers welfare Ramnath Thakur said that 1.79 crore farmers, 2.67 lakh traders and 4,518 Farmer-Producer Organisations (FPOs) were registered on the e-NAM platform as of 30 June, and agricultural produce worth ₹4.39 trillion had been traded on the portal.