DIGITAL LITERACY AS A CONSTRAINT IN PARTICIPATION IN E-NAM: A CASE STUDY OF APMC BAREILLY, UTTAR PRADESH

Abstract

The Electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) represents a major digital intervention in India's agricultural marketing system, intended to improve transparency, strengthen price discovery, reduce information asymmetry and facilitate wider market access through electronic trading. However, the effectiveness of a digital agricultural market depends not only on platform availability but also on the ability of stakeholders to access and use digital technologies. This study examines digital literacy and technological barriers affecting participation in e-NAM among stakeholders associated with the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC), Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh. Primary data were collected from 400 respondents comprising 200 farmers, 180 traders and 20 government officials and market functionaries through a structured questionnaire and personal interviews during January 2024–December 2025. Stratified random sampling was employed to ensure representation of the principal stakeholder groups. Descriptive statistics, item-level reliability analysis and the Chi-square test were used to examine technological constraints and the relationship between digital literacy and participation barriers. The results indicate that poor internet connectivity was the most prominent technological constraint (Mean = 3.65; 58% agreement), followed by lack of digital literacy (Mean = 3.60; 55%) and difficulty in using the digital platform (Mean = 3.52; 51%). Technical errors (Mean = 3.41; 47%) and inadequate technical support (Mean = 3.38; 45%) were also reported as important barriers. Corrected item–total correlations ranged from 0.60 to 0.70, indicating satisfactory item consistency. The Chi-square statistic of 18.52 with 4 degrees of freedom exceeded the 5% critical value of 9.49, leading to rejection of the null hypothesis. The study concludes that digital literacy and technological readiness constitute important constraints on inclusive participation in e-NAM. Strengthening digital capacity, internet connectivity, mandi-level technical assistance and user-oriented training is therefore essential for translating digital agricultural market integration into effective stakeholder participation.