P-Edu International Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies

TRANSFORMING AGRICULTURAL MARKETS THROUGH E-NAM: A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW OF FARMERS’ PERCEPTIONS, ECONOMIC OUTCOMES, AND SUSTAINABILITY IN INDIA


Abstract
Agricultural marketing reform has come to the fore as a key issue in Indian agricultural policy, and the Electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) which was introduced in April 2016, is the most ambitious step yet made to create a unified technology-mediated national agricultural marketing system for agricultural produce. This review attempts to summarize and critically appraise ten years since the inception of e-NAM, across the three interrelated areas – farmers’ perceptions and adoption behaviour, economic outcomes and platform's role in achieving agricultural sustainability. The review, which is based on peer-reviewed studies, econometric impact evaluations, government statistics and institutional reports from mainly 2015 to 2026, is not a mere descriptive stocktake, but an interrogation of the reason for the discrepancies in the empirical findings. The data shows that e-NAM has grown formally; as a result, there are 1,656 integrated mandis, over 18 million farmers registered and trade over ₹4.8 lakh crore by early 2026, but there has been a lack of functional transformation along with the institutional growth. Perception studies have reported a consistent farmer awareness level of low-to-medium, whereby digital literacy, education and social participation have been more influential than landholding size in farmer adoption; and long-standing farmer trust deficits, which stem from delayed payments and inadequate assaying infrastructure. Very little intra-mandi and inter-state trade has taken place so far, and there is only a moderate price rise, reported to be about 3-5 per cent by rigorous impact evaluations - commodity specific. The review highlights four substantive gaps in research on the impact of digital technologies over the long term, on gendered digital exclusion, on environmental outcomes and on the use of artificial intelligence and blockchain in public marketing infrastructure. Policy implications focus on sequencing the investment in infrastructure, verifying the credibility, resolving disputes, and aggregating farmers and producers before horizontal expansion. The paper concludes with a structured research agenda for future study on the connections between digital markets in agriculture and the SDGs.
Keywords:e-NAM, agricultural marketing, digital agriculture, farmers’ perception, price discovery, agricultural sustainability, India
Author(s):Ruby Kumari Kanojia
Email:rubby.jhs@gmail.com
DOI:10.70199/P-EIJMS.2.1.53-64
Orcid-id:https://orcid.org/0009-0003-3100-3351
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