The old electronic system of National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) was shut down even before the sign-up for the revamped version was completed, forcing farmers to go back to local physical mandis, where fewer buyers mean reduced competition and lower price realization, two people directly involved in the transition process told Mint on condition of anonymity.
The disruption could not have come at a worse time as the influx of kharif crops begins to rise sharply.
“Any disruption during the transition is therefore considered significant, especially during the peak arrival period of kharif crops. When e-NAM is down and farmers have to sell their produce in the physical mandi, they lose access to competitive offers from multiple mandis and have to rely only on traders present locally on the day, which reduces competition and may lead to lower prices,” the former said in the terms.
e-NAM is one of the central government’s flagship digital reforms for agriculture, connecting about 18 million farmers through 1,522 mandis on the platform, out of nearly 7,500 regulated mandis across the country. The platform aims to improve price discovery, reduce cartelisation and enable farmers to sell outside their local mandis, helping them secure better returns and increase their income.
In response to Mint’s queries, the agriculture department said that several suggestions and issues were reported after the pilot launch in Rajasthan and that its team is working to incorporate the feedback and resolve the issues.
The ministry also said that the e-NAM 2.0 implementation process is being phased, in a consultative and technically supported manner, to ensure stability, continuity and readiness for wider national rollout once the pilot phase is fully streamlined.
Queries sent on December 4 to Rajasthan’s chief secretary, directorate of agriculture marketing, and Akal Information System Ltd, the technology partner for rolling out the enhanced e-NAM 2.0 system, remained unanswered till press time.
The e-NAM platform is managed and operated by the Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) under the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. The rollout of the e-NAM 2.0 pilot project began on November 3 across all 173 mandis in Rajasthan after SFAC selected Akal Information System as its technology partner following a competitive bidding process at a contract value of over ₹25 crore for a period of four years with a provision for extension for another four years if mutually agreed, the former said.
Experts say the success of e-NAM 2.0 will depend not only on technological improvements but also on how smoothly Mandi farmers and employees are able to adopt the new system.
“Digital platforms like e-NAM can strengthen agricultural markets, but any transition needs to be handled with care,” said Rakesh Arrawatia, professor of finance and accounting at the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA).
The government is rolling out e-NAM 2.0 to replace the earlier system and ensure smoother trading across mandis through a mandatory uniform licence. “In the previous system, states mostly issued single-mandi licenses and the concept of unified licenses was never fully implemented,” said the second person quoted above.
“This has restricted traders to one mandi and slowed down cross-mandi bidding. The new version makes a unified license mandatory, allowing traders to operate in multiple mandis with a single licence. e-NAM 2.0 also offers advanced search and filtering capabilities to locate users, lots and commodities – an important feature missing in the earlier version,” this person said.
In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on 25 July 2025, Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Ramnath Thakur said that 1,79,41,613 farmers, 2,67,719 traders and 4,518 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) were registered on the e-NAM platform as on 30 June. Thakur added that agricultural production is probably worth it ₹By this date, 4.4 trillion had been traded on the portal.
According to the second person quoted above, the Directorate of Agriculture Marketing, Jaipur, had identified several issues in the e-NAM 2.0 pilot project in a letter dated November 27 to the SFAC.
It said traders who are already registered are still shown with a single-mandi license, so they cannot bid, and there is no option to convert it to a unified license, the person added.
The directorate also pointed out that the mandatory PIN code in the registration of farmers is causing addresses to be displayed incorrectly and that farmers from the eight newly created districts are still mapped under the old district names, so all 41 districts, towns and villages need to be updated.
He added that data from the eight newly formed mandi samitis still appears under the older mandis and needs to be properly migrated.
“The card shows the mandi address instead of the farmer’s address and users with joint trader-commission agent licenses are not allowed to register as commission agents,” said Raghunath Ram, secretary of Krishi Upaj Mandi Samiti Nagaur, Rajasthan.
Nagaur is one mandi that sees large arrivals of major cash crops, especially spices like cumin and saunf (fennel seeds). In Nagaur mandi, which is in western Rajasthan, moong (green gram), guar (cluster bean) and moth are also among the highest arrivals.
“Since farmers cannot register for the new system (e-NAM 2.0), they lose the opportunity to secure better prices for their produce and are forced to sell physically at prices negotiated on the spot,” said Raghunath Ram.
“e-NAM 2.0 has incorrect district mapping after the creation of eight new districts – Deeg, Khairthal-Tijara, Kotputli-Behror, Balotra, Beawar, Phalodi, Salumber and Didwana-Kuchaman. Farmers continue to be mapped under old district names and the state has asked that all 41 districts be updated,” Nagaurdi said.
Some user profiles are not visible in the system, preventing updates, while new registrations are blocked because these users appear to be already registered.
The directorate also said that batches from other mandis are appearing on the sampling, testing and tender screens, causing confusion.
Farmer organizations say glitches in the e-NAM 2.0 pilot project are already affecting market operations in Rajasthan and could harm farmers during the peak arrival season if not addressed quickly.
“Farmers cannot afford to disrupt the mandi system at the height of the marketing season,” said Rakesh Tikait, national spokesperson of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU). “Unless the new e-NAM platform is fully ready, the government should not force farmers to depend on a system that still faces technical issues. Faulty district mapping and registration failures directly affect farmers’ ability to get better prices. The priority should be to fix the system first and ensure that farmers do not incur losses due to these glitches,” Tikait added.
