Pravash Pradhan
Post News Network
New Delhi, July 2: As part of aggressive agriculture market reforms initiated by the Centre, Orissa is going to join the e-platform for National Agriculture Market (NAM).
Addressing a press conference, after the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) meeting, Union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh said five states including Orissa have expressed interest in joining in the NAM project.
“States such as Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujurat and Uttar Pradesh have shown interest to join in national agriculture market platform which will help better price discovery of agri-produces,” said Singh.
The CCEA, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has given its approval to a central sector scheme for Promotion of National Agricultural Market through agri-tech infrastructure fund (ATIF). The Department of Agriculture & Cooperation (DAC) will set it up through the small farmers agribusiness consortium (SFAC) by creation of a common electronic platform deployable in selected regulated markets across the country.
The government has earmarked Rs 200crore for the scheme from 2015-16 to 2017-18. This includes provision for supplying software free of cost by DAC to the states and Union territories (UTs) and for the cost of hardware/infrastructure to be subsidised by the government of India up to Rs 30 lakh per Mandi (other than for private mandis).
The target is to cover 585 selected regulated markets across the country in the past three years –
250 mandis in 2015-16, 200 mandis in 2016-17 and 135 mandis in 2017-18. All these regulated markets will be integrated with the common e-platform to provide farmers and traders with access to opportunities for purchase/sale of agri-commodities at optimal prices in a transparent manner across the country.
Besides, private markets will also be allowed access to the e-platform thereby enhancing its outreach.
