Implementation of National Agriculture Market Project The National Agriculture Market (NAM) e-platform has been envisaged to bring in operational efficiency and transparency in the mandi operations and to enhance market access for the farmers and eliminate information asymmetry. In order to provide guidance to the States/ Union Territories (UTs) for integration of their regulated wholesale markets with the NAM e-platform, the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare has had workshops from time to time for the States/UTs, one of which was the visit of State Ministers and officials to Hubli, Karnataka on 9th July, 2015 to witness first hand the functioning of e-marketing platform. The Department has also circulated a detailed template to enable States/UTs to prepare their Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) to submit their proposals thereon to the Government. Further to facilitate integration, the implementing agency i.e. Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) will engage a Strategic Partner (SP) which shall, inter-alia, train all participants (farmers, commission agents, traders, employees of the Market, data entry operators, etc.) in the market where the NAM is adopted, so that every participant is able to operate the NAM for its business requirement. Further, the SP will also provide one year local support to each participating mandi and set up a help desk to support day to day operations and to answer queries in the State language. This information was given by the Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Sh. Mohanbhai Kalyanjibhai Kundaria in Rajya Sabha today. NCJ/CP
