Union Agriculture Minister launches Platform of Platforms (POP) under eNAM
Bengaluru: The Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar, released an equity grant of over Rs 37 crore to 1,018 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) on the sidelines of the State Agriculture and Horticulture Ministers’ Conference here today. He said that the equity grant will benefit about 3.5 lakh farmers and will lead to the goal of setting up 10 thousand FPOs.
The Producer Members’ equity, supplemented by a similar equity grant from the Central Government, “would strengthen the financial base of the FPOs and help them to avail loans from financial institutions for their projects and working capital requirements for business development,” he said. Under the scheme, up to Rs. 18 lakh financial aid per FPO will be provided for a period of 3 years. In addition, a loan of Rs. 2,000 for each farmer member of the FPO within a limit of Rs.15 lakh per FPO will be available. There is also a provision of a project loan or equivalent grant from any eligible lending institution of up to Rs.2 crore per FPO.
Tomar also launched the Platform of Platforms (POP) under the National Agriculture Market (e-NAM). He said that with the introduction of POP, farmers will be facilitated to sell the produce outside their state borders which will increase farmers’ digital access to multiple markets, buyers and service providers and bring transparency in business transactions with the aim of improving price search mechanism and quality commensurate price realisation.
In all 41 service providers from different platforms are covered under POP facilitating various value chain services like trading, quality checks, warehousing, fintech, market information, transportation etc. The PoP will create a digital ecosystem, which will benefit from the expertise of different platforms in different segments of the agricultural value chain.
e-NAM integrates the platform of Service Providers as a “Platform of Platforms” which includes Composite Service Providers (Service Providers who provide holistic services for the trading of agricultural produce including quality analysis, trading, payment systems and logistics), Logistics Service providers, Quality Assurance Service Provider, Cleaning, Grading, Sorting and Packaging Service Provider, Warehousing Facility Service Provider, Agricultural Input Service Provider, Technology Enabled Finance and Insurance Service Provider, Information Dissemination Portal (Advisory Services, crop forecasting, weather updates, capacity building for farmers etc.) and other platforms (e-commerce, international agri-business platforms, barter, private market platforms etc.).
The inclusion of various service providers not only adds to the value of the e-NAM platform but also gives the users of the platform options to avail of services from different service providers, the Unio Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare stated. “It enables farmers, FPOs, traders and other stakeholders to access a wide variety of goods and services across the agricultural value chain through a single window, thereby giving more options to the stakeholders,” it added. Moreover, while selecting a good quality Goods/Service Provider, “it saves the time and labour of the stakeholders”.
The POP can be accessed through e-NAM mobile app which can be downloaded from Google Play Store.
– global bihari bureau
