In order to promote National Agricultural Market, the Union govt has approved a Agri-Tech Infrastructure Fund (ATIF) for implementation during 2015-16 to 2017-18 with a budget of Rs.200 crores.
The Scheme envisages implementation of NAM through Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC), which is an autonomous organization under the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (DAC).
It provides for a pan-India electronic trading portal which will network selected Agricultural Produce Marketing Committees (APMC) market yards to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities. NAM is a “virtual” market but it will have physical markets (mandis) at the back end.
The e-platform will be deployed in selected 585 regulated whole sale markets across the country based on the States having carried out prior reforms in their marketing laws in respect of (i) a single license to be valid across the State, (ii) single point levy of market fee and (iii) provision for electronic auction as a mode for price discovery.
The selected APMC market yards that are integrated with the e-platform will offer the farmers both the choice to place their produce for sale either to the traders physically present in the mandi or else post the sale details on the on-line portal available in the same market yard for sale locally as well as outside the APMC or even within the physical boundary of the State, informed the Minister of State for Agriculture Mohanbhai Kalyanjibhai Kundariya in Rajya Sabha last week.