Agriculture: Irrigation, MSP and marketing

e-NAM was launched by the Prime Minister on 14 April 2016 with 21 mandis of eight States. It is implemented by the Small Farmers' Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) as Lead Implementing Agency under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. The scheme guidelines describe it as a 'virtual' market with a physical market at the back end: registration, assaying, bidding and payment happen online, but the produce moves physically through the mandi. All three statements are correct. SFAC, a registered society promoted by the Department of Agriculture in 1994, was chosen as lead agency and works through a technology partner that runs the platform. The date of launch, 14 April 2016, is Ambedkar Jayanti. On e-NAM the farmer's lot is registered at the gate, assayed for quality, put up for online bidding, and the payment can be made online to the farmer's account. Because the produce stays in the physical mandi, e-NAM depends on the yard's assaying, weighing and storage facilities, which is why the scheme funds such equipment.

PIB describes e-NAM as a pan-India electronic trading portal which networks the existing APMC mandis to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities. It offers online competitive bidding, assaying and online payment. It is a spot market, not a futures exchange, and it does not replace State mandis. The DMI's price-reporting portal is Agmarknet, a different system that only disseminates prices and arrivals. e-NAM differs from three neighbours. Agmarknet, run by the Directorate of Marketing and Inspection with NIC, reports prices and arrivals but has no trading. Commodity exchanges such as NCDEX deal in futures and are regulated by SEBI. Private e-commerce platforms sell to consumers. e-NAM is a government spot market for wholesale trade, built on existing mandis, aiming at One Nation One Market. Questions often give four portals and ask which one fits a description, so knowing these contrasts is useful.

e-NAM is completely funded by the Central Government. The e-NAM software is given to States/UTs free of cost, and the Department gives a one-time grant of up to Rs 30 lakh per market for hardware, five internet connections, assaying equipment and related infrastructure. SFAC, through its strategic partner, also places a mandi analyst in each market for one year. States bear any extra cost. The NABARD-linked interest subsidy belongs to the separate Agri-Market Infrastructure Fund. The Central grant is aimed at making a mandi capable of electronic trade: computers, internet links, assaying equipment for quality testing, and other basic items. Beyond that, the State or market committee bears the cost of further infrastructure. Assaying matters because buyers bidding from far away must trust the quality report. The Agri-Market Infrastructure Fund, set up with NABARD in 2019, is a different instrument that gives States subsidised loans for building market infrastructure, especially in Gramin Agricultural Markets.

During the COVID-19 period an FPO trading module was added so that FPOs could trade from their collection centres without moving produce to the APMC. A warehouse-based trading module enables trade from warehouses based on e-NWR. The Platform of Platforms (PoP), launched on 14 July 2022, integrates service providers (assaying, logistics, warehousing, fintech, market information) with e-NAM so that farmers can reach more buyers and services; it builds on the mandi network rather than replacing it. Statements 1 and 2 are correct. The FPO module recognises that many FPOs aggregate produce at their own centres; listing such lots on e-NAM saves the cost of carrying them to a yard. Warehouse-based trade uses electronic negotiable warehouse receipts issued by warehouses registered with the Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority, so a farmer can store, borrow against the receipt and sell when prices are better. The Platform of Platforms connects e-NAM with other digital services so a farmer can find buyers, testing, transport and finance in one place.

The Shanta Kumar High Level Committee named excess stocking as one of FCI's key problems: over the previous five years its buffer stocks averaged more than double the norms, costing the nation thousands of crores with no worthwhile purpose served. Among the reasons it listed were export bans, open-ended procurement distorted by bonuses and high statutory levies, and above all the lack of a pro-active liquidation policy. It therefore asked for a transparent liquidation policy that would kick in automatically when stocks exceed the norms, and for more flexibility for FCI to sell in OMSS and export markets. Statement 3 reverses this: the Committee treated export bans as a cause of the glut and saw exports as an outlet for surplus stocks.

The Royal Commission on Agriculture (report 1928, chaired by Lord Linlithgow) observed that the prosperity of cultivators depended heavily on marketing facilities and recommended regulated markets and fair trade practices. Its recommendations and those of the Central Banking Enquiry Committee (1931) led the Government of India to set up the Directorate of Marketing and Inspection (DMI) in 1935. The DMI later administered the Agricultural Produce (Grading and Marking) Act, 1937. Both statements are correct. The DMI is now an attached office of the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, with its head office at Faridabad and the Central Agmark Laboratory at Nagpur. Under the 1937 Act it frames grade standards and certifies produce under the AGMARK mark. The Royal Commission, chaired by Lord Linlithgow, is also remembered for its broader advice on agricultural research, which led to the Imperial Council of Agricultural Research in 1929, the forerunner of ICAR. One commission thus shaped both marketing and research institutions.

Both statements are correct and linked. Para 4.4 of the e-NAM scheme guidelines says that States/UTs which do not have marketing regulation, or have one not in force, can integrate with e-NAM and avail grants if they identify an institution and frame legally enforceable guidelines covering registration of traders, transaction fees and other trading provisions. The identified entity builds the back-end infrastructure. Statement-II is the mechanism that makes Statement-I possible. This provision is relevant for places like Kerala and some Union Territories, which had no APMC law or had one not in force. Instead of forcing them to pass an APMC Act first, the scheme let them name an institution and frame rules covering who may trade, what fees apply and how disputes are handled. The aim was national coverage of e-NAM. The general lesson is that e-NAM needs a legal basis for online trade, which can come from an APMC Act or from such enforceable guidelines.

The reply (PIB, 28 July 2026) said 1.89 crore farmers and 2.78 lakh traders were registered on e-NAM as on 30 June 2026, and that average trader bids per lot rose from 2.1 (2016-17) to 2.8 (2025-26), showing more competition. Inter-State trade, however, remains small: cumulative inter-State trade was 28,566 MT worth only Rs 83.95 crore. The figure of over Rs 4 lakh crore is the total value of all trade on e-NAM (Rs 4,39,941 crore by June 2025), most of it within States. Statements 1 and 2 are correct. Inter-State trade is small because it depends on several things working together: trust in quality reports from distant mandis, transport and logistics across States, payment security and differences in State rules. Most trade on e-NAM happens within a mandi or within a State, which still adds competition through more bidders. The rise in bids per lot is a better sign of the scheme's effect than headline totals. Read official data carefully: a cumulative total, an inter-State total and registration figures measure different things.

Statements 1, 3 and 4 are correct (c). Fertigation feeds dissolved fertiliser through drip or sprinkler lines. Statement 1 is right: acids can be added to the water to correct its alkalinity, which also keeps drippers clean. Statement 3 is right: nutrients reach the roots in small, timely doses, so plants take up more. Statement 4 is right: because less fertiliser is applied at once, less is leached below the roots into groundwater. Statement 2 is wrong: rock phosphate does not dissolve in water, so it cannot be applied this way, and nor can all phosphatic fertilisers.

Notice that fertigation pairs naturally with micro-irrigation, promoted under Per Drop More Crop (PMKSY). Fertigation is common in Israel.

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The Fair and Remunerative Price of sugarcane is approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (a). The CACP (b) only recommends it. The Directorate of Marketing and Inspection (c) handles grading and AGMARK, and the APMC (d) regulates mandis, so neither fixes the FRP.

Sugar mills must pay farmers at least the FRP, under the Sugarcane (Control) Order issued under the Essential Commodities Act. Some States, such as Uttar Pradesh, announce a higher State Advised Price. The FRP replaced the Statutory Minimum Price in 2009. Notice how cane pricing ties farmer welfare to mill finances.

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Only objective 3 belongs to RAD (d). Item 3 is right: Rainfed Area Development (RAD), an area-based part of the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), promotes Integrated Farming Systems. It grows crops along with horticulture, livestock, fishery and agro-forestry, so a farmer in a dry area has more than one income source when the rain fails. Item 1 is wrong: monoculture raises risk. Item 2 is wrong: irrigated rice has nothing to do with a rainfed programme.

Notice why it matters: about half of India's net sown area is rainfed, growing much of its pulses, millets and oilseeds. NMSA is one of the eight missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (2008). Related: Per Drop More Crop for micro-irrigation.

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Only one statement is correct (a). Statement 1 is right: India has about 156 million hectares of arable land, among the largest in the world and more than China's roughly 120 million. Statement 2 is wrong: by the data used for the question, China irrigated a larger share of its farmland than India, where much farming still depends on the monsoon. Statement 3 is wrong: China's yields per hectare of rice and wheat are much higher than India's, thanks to more fertiliser, seeds and mechanisation.

Notice the lesson: India's problem is not land but productivity. Small fragmented holdings, rain-fed farming and low investment hold it back, which is why schemes stress micro-irrigation and seeds.

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Statements 1 and 4 are correct (d). Statement 1 is right: the Tea Board was set up under the Tea Act, 1953, so it is a statutory body. Statement 4 is right: it keeps overseas offices in Dubai and Moscow to promote Indian tea in key markets. Statement 2 is wrong: like the Coffee, Rubber and Spices boards, it works under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, because these are export crops, not under the Agriculture Ministry. Statement 3 is wrong: its head office is in Kolkata; it is the Coffee Board that sits in Bengaluru.

Notice the other boards: the Spices Board is in Kochi and the Rubber Board in Kottayam. The commodity boards have long been under review for merger and reform.

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All three statements are correct (d). Statement 1 is right: Climate-Smart Villages in Haryana, Punjab, Bihar and other States were set up under CCAFS (Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security), an international research programme. They test farm practices that adapt to climate change and cut emissions. Statement 2 is right: CCAFS ran under the CGIAR, whose system office is in Montpellier, France. Statement 3 is right: ICRISAT at Patancheru, Hyderabad, is one of the CGIAR research centres.

Notice other CGIAR centres: IRRI (Philippines, rice), CIMMYT (Mexico, maize and wheat) and IWMI (Sri Lanka). India's own programme is NICRA (National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture) of the ICAR.

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