“SKOCH Award 2023” to OSAM Board for eNAM, Co-op Minister Congratulates Team

Bhubaneswar,July 17: Odisha State Agricultural Marketing Board (OSAM Board) is the SKOCH Award 2023 winner for eNAM in Silver Category in Agriculture.OSAM Board under Cooperation Department has achieved a new height in the cooperative sector with successful on boarding of all 66 Regulated Marking Committees (RMCs) of the State in the e-NAM portal.

Odisha has left many agriculturally advanced States in the country far behind and has achieved the unique feat of 100 percent onboarding of its agricultural markets under all RMCs. Under the visionary leadership of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Cooperation Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak the team cooperation achieved the milestone, which will immensely help the farmers of the State,The Odisha State Agricultural Marketing Board (OSAM Board) under the administrative control of the Cooperation Department has taken this initiative. All the 66 Regulated Market Committees of the State have been successfully onboarded to the e-NAM platform.

It is pertinent to mention here that e-NAM is a pan India online platform developed by Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India with the aim to link all the buyers and sellers of agricultural produce, virtually, through the APMCs (Agricultural Produce Marketing Committees)/ Regulated Market Committees (RMCs).With only 10 RMCs in the e-NAM platform in the year 2017, Odisha has left many agriculturally advanced states in the country far behind and has achieved the unique feat of 100% onboarding of its agricultural markets under all RMCs,.In moving one step further, the Department has onboarded 401 Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) to the Agri-Marketing platform.

About 400 Women Self Help Groups (WSHGs) as members of these FPOs, can now reap the benefits of this online platform in marketing of their produce, Further, to boost agricultural marketing, the Cooperation Department has initiated a project on Agri Marketing Network linking all 66 RMCs, 43 Krushak Bazars, 76 Municipal Markets including 800 FPOs and WSHGs.Further OSAM Board has entered into an agreement with the Agri-Business Incubator wing of International Crop Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), an international organisation notified by the United Nations and Government of India.

Minister, Nayak has congratulated the OSAM Board and Team Cooperation for the award and hoped the team will continue with same zeal and enthusiasm maintaining transparency in accordance with 5T mandate of Governance for the benefit of farmers of the State.