Price Convergence of Cotton Before and After e-National Agriculture Market

In the present investigation, an attempt was made to study the price convergence of cotton in selected markets before and after the integration of markets through e-NAM. The study period was divided into two phases: the Before-e-NAM phase, which spanned from January 2012 to December 2016, and the After-e-NAM phase, which extended from January 2017 to December 2021. Johansen integration, Granger causality and VECM were the tools used for analysis purposes. The results revealed that the prominence of the Adoni market declined after the e-NAM period, compared with before it. This decline may be due to farmers' preference for selling cotton to processing industries or village traders. The Government should take steps to reduce the costs borne by cotton farmers in the market, thereby helping them to achieve better price realisation.