What is/are the advantage/advantages of implementing the ‘National Agriculture Market’ scheme? 1. It is a pan-India electronic trading portal for agricultural commodities. 2. It provides the farmers access to nationwide market, with prices commensurate with the quality of their produce.

Home › PYQs › Agriculture › All questions › 2017 · Agricultural markets

UPSC Prelims 2017 · Agriculture · Farm Money

What is/are the advantage/advantages of implementing the ‘National Agriculture Market’ scheme?

It is a pan-India electronic trading portal for agricultural commodities.
It provides the farmers access to nationwide market, with prices commensurate with the quality of their produce.

Show the answer and explanation

Answer: (c) Both 1 and 2

Portal (what it is) + quality-linked nationwide price (why it matters) — the two halves of the scheme.

1. ✓ CORRECT e-NAM (2016) links APMC mandis across States on one online platform.

2. ✓ CORRECT Produce is assayed for quality, and buyers from anywhere can bid — so good quality can fetch a better price.

e-NAM is run by the Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) under the Ministry of Agriculture.

Farmer’s mandi → quality assaying → online bids from anywhere → better price

(a) Drops the price benefit, seeing e-NAM as just a website. Its point is that buyers anywhere bid on quality-tested produce.

(b) Drops the portal — but e-NAM IS the electronic trading platform.

(d) Would mean e-NAM is neither an e-portal nor a wider market — the opposite of its design.

Statement 2 sounds like a promise, not a feature, so people doubt it. It is the stated objective of the scheme.

🔒 e-NAM (2016) = online pan-India mandi network · SFAC runs it · quality-based bidding.