Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched India’s first electronic trading portal to allow farmers to sell their goods across the country, in move aimed at improving livelihoods of struggling growers and boosting the rural economy.

• The National Agriculture Market (eNAM) will allow farmers to monitor the cost of commodities, gauge demand and gain easier access to markets in other parts of the nation, which will boost competition and eliminate middlemen.
• The eNAM platform currently lists 23 commodities and integrates 21 agricultural markets across eight Indian states. It plans to include over 400 markets by next March, and 585 markets across India by March 2018.
• The PM said eNAM will also help the government meet its target of doubling farmers’ income in the next five years.
• In February, the government pledged to spend billions of dollars to help struggling farmers through various measures, including a crop insurance scheme and better access to markets.
• While farmers can currently access markets outside their own region, many are deterred from doing so because of inter-state tariffs and conflicting regulations.

India is now the world’s fastest-growing major economy, but two years of drought and a failure to create jobs for a burgeoning young population has left millions of rural residents struggling.