New Delhi, May 12 : With the launch of 177 additional mandis, the total number of eNAM mandis across country reached 962 as Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar on Monday launched integration of new mandis with the National Agriculture Market (e-NAM). These 177 new mandis are from 10 states and UT namely, Gujarat (17), Haryana (26), J&K (1), Kerala (5), Maharashtra (54), Odisha (15), Punjab (17), Rajasthan (25), Tamil Nadu (13) and West Bengal (1) which will strengthen agriculture marketing and facilitate farmers to sell their harvested produce through the online portal. Launching the new mandis through video conference, Tomar said efforts should be made to strengthen eNAM further to benefit the farmers. He said eNAM portal has been envisioned by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi as an ambitious use of technology for the benefit of farmers. Earlier, 785 mandis were integrated with eNAM across 17 States and 2 UTs, with a user base of 1.66 Cr Farmers, 1.30 lakh traders and 71,911 Commission Agents. As of May 9, 2020, total volume of 3.43 Crore MT & 37.93 Lakh numbers (Bamboo & Coconut) collectively worth more than Rs. 1 lakh crore has been traded on eNAM platform. Digital payment worth Rs. 708 Cr have been done via eNAM platform, benefitting more than 1.25 lakh farmers. eNAM facilitates trade beyond mandi/ state borders. A total of 236 mandis participated in inter- mandi trade across 12 States whereas 13 States/UT have participated in the inter-state trade allowing farmers to interact directly with distantly located traders. At present, 150 commodities, including food grains, oilseeds, fibers, vegetables and fruits, are being traded on eNAM. More than 1,005 FPOs have been registered on eNAM platform and have traded 2900 MT of agri-produce worth Rs 7.92 Crores. To de-congest mandis during COVID-19 lockdown situation, FPO trade module, Logistics module and eNWR based Warehouse module were launched by the Union Agriculture Minister on 2nd April 2020. Since then, 82 FPOs from 15 States have traded on eNAM with total quantity of 12048 Quintals of commodities worth Rs 2.22 Cr. Nine (9) Logistics Service Aggregators have partnered with eNAM having 2,31,300 transporters providing availability of 11,37,700 trucks to service transportation need of eNAM stakeholders. /IANS