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Agriculture trade worth INR 15,009 crores on e-NAM portal so far
A national consultation to review the progress of adoption of reforms and other initiatives in the agri-marketing sector aimed at enhancing farmers’ income was held recently, under the Chairmanship of Dr Ramesh Chand, Member, NITI Aayog.
DAC & FW has, in consultation with NITI Aayog, identified a set of 9 marketing reforms to be made in Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee( APMC) Acts of the States / UTs. These include 3 mandatory reforms enabling integration to e-NAM viz provision for e-trading, unified trading license and a single point levy of market fee, as well as setting up markets in the private sector, direct marketing, etc all aimed at reducing the intermediaries.
So far 417 markets from 13 States have joined the online-portal, which targets integration of
585 markets by March 2018. So far 39.75 lakh farmers and 88474 traders have registered and trade of Rs 15,009 crores has taken through the e-NAM portal.
Agriculture innovations mark ABLE-AG’ s Earth Day celebrations
On the eve of Earth Day on April 22, the Association of Biotech Led Enterprises, Agriculture Focus Group( ABLE- AG) celebrated the agricultural innovations that have improved the productivity, health, and quality of crops while reducing agriculture’ s environmental impact. Nearly 400,000 plant species provide our planet with the nutritious food, fiber, fresh air, and medicine we need to survive, but it is estimated that roughly one-fifth of those are at risk of extinction due to environmental threats
In his comments on the occasion, Dr Shivendra Bajaj, Executive Director, ABLE-AG mentioned,“ On 47thEarth Day, we want to reinforce our commitment to farmers by continuously innovating, researching and developing new technologies and tools that will help our Indian farmers. We want to create and develop next generation of agribiotech technologies that will help our farmers produce healthier, more sustainable crops that will feed the growing population of the country and are environmental friendly.”
ABLE-AG in its statement highlighted the few facts about how advances in plant science are reducing agriculture’ s environmental impact and protecting our planet and its precious resources. It mentioned that the plant biotechnology allows farmers to grow more food on less land, plant science is helping rebuild the world’ s soil supply, innovations in plant biotechnology are reducing agriculture’ s carbon footprint and also
72 BioVoiceNews | May 2017