HDFC Integrates With e-Nam to Reach Over 1.71 Crore Farmers

HDFC Bank, India's largest private sector bank, stated today that it has integrated with the Government of India's National Agriculture Market (eNAM) to allow digital collection and distribution of funds to different e-NAM beneficiaries.

eNAM is an online trading platform that facilitates the online transaction of agricultural commodities commodities for farmers, traders, FPOs, and other stakeholders. It was launched in 2016 with Small Farmers Agri–Business Consortium (SFAC) as the nodal implementing agency under the aegis of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.

Farmers would traditionally travel kilometres from their villages to the nearest Mandi with their agricultural produce. This technological intervention has transformed the country's agricultural commerce. eNAM is currently connected with 1,000 Mandis around the country.

Under this engagement, HDFC Bank has worked with the SFAC to further increase the convenience of conducting business on the e-NAM platform by delivering the following collection mechanisms via integration with eNAM:

1. Multi-Netbanking

2. Debit card

3. NEFT/RTGS

4. UPI/IMPS

Farmers that use the e-NAM platform just need to provide the necessary KYC details to be registered. The Mandi uploads the details of their Produce and Quality Assaying certificate before to the e-bidding procedure. Once the sale bill is finalised, they may effortlessly accept payment using HDFC Bank's dependable system.

The bank's 5,000-plus branch network helps farmers even more. With more than 50% of its branches located in semi-urban and rural regions, the bank provides farmers and merchants with access to financial services to assist their trading operations on the eNAM platform, even in remote locations.

This integration benefits not only farmers, but also Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), commission agents, institutional purchasers, and various Mandi level service providers, among others, who are all part of the agriculture value chain. In addition to collections, the platform offers an automatic settlement method that eliminates the need for manual involvement in beneficiary accounts.

"As envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, technology would be used to maximise the benefit to farmers. I hope that this collaboration with HDFC Bank would assist farmers across the nation by allowing them to conduct business transactions from a location of their preference," said  Neelkamal Darbari IAS, Managing Director, SFAC.

"We are pleased to be partnering with SFAC to provide financial services for the eNAM platform." It enables us to empower farmers by allowing them to get payments in a reasonable way and to make conducting business easier for them," said Ms Sunali Rohra, Executive Vice President, Government & Institutional Business & Gig Banking, HDFC Bank.

"At HDFC Bank, we have pioneered the development of government partnerships. We were designated as the Central Board of Direct Taxes' first agency bank to digitise tax collections in 2001. Based on this experience, two other banks were admitted in 2003. Today, as India's second biggest agency bank for tax collection, we are certain that collaboration between the government and private sector has the potential to impact lives."

HDFC Bank is the Government of India's second largest agency bank for tax collection. The bank has been designated as the collecting banker for Direct Tax and GST payments, as well as the GeM portal integration for collecting Caution Money deposits for procurement via the site. In addition, the bank handles around 9% of total DBT payments to beneficiaries of different government schemes like MGNREGA, PMAY, and PMSKY.

SFAC is also implementing CSS on "Formation and Promotion of 10,000 FPOs" throughout the country. FPOs that join e-NAM will improve the involvement of Small and Marginal Farmers on the e-NAM platform, allowing them to grow their farm revenue even more.