Adoption and usage of the electronic national agriculture market: a literature review

Abstract

Agricultural marketing is one of the lifelines for a sizeable population of India and it contributes 25 percent of the GDP. An effective agricultural marketing system can help farmers market their products at a fair and reasonable price. In recent years due to technological breakthroughs, the Indian agriculture sector is experiencing substantial shifts in irrigation strategies and the result is reflected in the surplus production of crops. Despite record production in crops the visible changes in farmers’ earnings are very negligible. The more profitable production of crops emphasizes the importance of agricultural marketing for the inclusive development of the agriculture and welfare of the farmers. “Thus the government and other organizations are trying to address the key challenges of agriculture in India, including small holdings of farmers, primary and secondary processing, supply chain, the infrastructure supporting the efficient use of resources and marketing, and reducing intermediaries in the market” (Sharma 2021). The National Agriculture Market (eNAM)- a pan-India electronic trading portal introduced in April 2016 to connect the Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMC) mandis and to set up an integrated nationwide market for agricultural commodities. “It unites surplus production regions with deficit regions through an online platform, which may lead to better market competition, and thus better prices for farmers for their produce” (Venkatesh et al, 2021). This initiative was widely considered to be a game changer for farmers and the overall agricultural marketing sector of India. The present research paper reviews existing literature on the adoption of the e-NAM platform across different Indian states to highlight the status of adoption and acceptance by its various stakeholders