Bhubaneswar: Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Wednesday vowed to work for the cause of farmers and urged Union agriculture and farmers' welfare minister Radha Mohan Singh to link regional cooperative marketing societies under the e-NAM (national agricultural market) platform.

A state government official said once the cooperative marketing societies are linked to the e-NAM platform of the ministry of agriculture, the farmers would know about the right price of their produce. The official said that this would help farmers fetch good price for their produce.

In a letter to Singh, the petroleum minister spoke about the need for farmers to get the right price in the market and a proper platform to achieve it.

"Price sustenance for agricultural produce remains a persistent issue that plagues farmers across the country and under your leadership major initiatives have been taken to suitably address the issue," Pradhan wrote to his cabinet colleague.

He said: "I am given to understand that around 200 mandis are expected to be linked to the e-NAM."

Pointing to the plight of farmers of the state, Pradhan said: "The low per capita income in the farm sector and declining profitability has harmed the farmers as they continue to lag behind in marketing and processing capabilities." Pradhan went on to add: "In this context, it is imperative that both the farmers and related organisations should connect with e-NAM to benefit from absolute farm produce price discovery and achieve the vision of the government to double farmer's income by 2022. Seeing the enthusiasm of farmers to the e-NAM idea, I volunteered to facilitate the vigorous linking up of such markets in Odisha with the e-NAM platform."

Stating that at present 10 mandis in the state are linked under e-NAM platform, Pradhan said: "There is an urgent need to link all the 66 regulated market committees functioning under the supervision and control of the Odisha State Agricultural Marketing Board under the e-NAM platform."

He said: "This is especially important as the majority of the regulated market committees in Odisha have inadequate facilities and sufficient developed infrastructure. Such an initiative will go a long way in ameliorating farmers' woes, help in correlation of farm produce with markets and facilitate enhancement of farmer income."