Lok Sabha Question No. 393 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-09-15
Subject: Perishable Fruits and Vegetables
Ministry: FOOD PROCESSING INDUSTRIES
Asked by: Ganesan Selvam, Dhanush M Kumar, C.N. Annadurai, Gautham Sigamani Pon

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF FOOD PROCESSING INDUSTRIES

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 393

ANSWERED ON 15 TH  SEPTEMBER, 2020

## PERISHABLE FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

## 393. SHRI G. SELVAM: SHRI DHANUSH M. KUMAR: SHRI C.N. ANNADURAI: SHRI GAUTHAM SIGAMANI PON:

Will the Minister of FOOD PROCESSING INDUSTRIES be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the unavailability of market for perishable fruits and vegetables due to Covid- 19, have  forced  farmers  to  indulge  in  distress  sale,  leading  to  a  reduction  in  the  price  of perishable  fruits  and  vegetables  especially  in  Tamil  Nadu  at  the  farm  level  and  if  so,  the details thereof;
- (b) whether  the  Government  has  recently  formulated  any  scheme  under  Operation Green  to prevent distress sale;
- (c) if  so,  the  details  thereof  and  the  expected  number  of  farmers  who  are likely  to  benefitted under this move especially in Tamil Nadu;
- (d) the other steps taken by the Government to develop model markets for marketing and sale of perishable commodities;
- (e) the details of institutional arrangement made by the Government to take care of production, marketing and delivery of fruits and vegetables during each of the last three years and its impact on the life of farmers; and
- (f) whether the Government will also develop e-markets for farmers to sell their vegetables and fruits and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR FOOD PROCESSING INDUSTRIES (SHRI RAMESWAR TELI)

(a): Agricultural marketing is a state subject and wholesale agricultural marketing is undertaken by the network of 6,946 regulated wholesale markets, set up under the provision of respective State Agricultural  Produce  Market  Committee  (APMC)  Act.  During  lockdown,  APMC  markets  were opened with social distance and sanitary protocols to avoid spread of novel corona virus. Further, in order to facilitate sale of agriculture produce including perishable produce during the Covid-19, the Government had issued advisories to States/Union Territories (UTs) to facilitate Direct Marketing and allow trade-transactions  outside the mandi-yards by liberalizing  regulations  to  decongest  the mandis  as  well  as  to facilitate direct buying  of  farmers'  produce  from  their  farm  gate  at remunerative prices.

The Government also issued advisories to States/UTs to ensure inter-state and intra- state movement of vehicles carrying the agriculture produce in addition to setting up of monitoring cell to keep  watch  and  extend  immediate  help  for  seamless  movement  of  such  vehicles  including coordination  for  issue  of  permits  to  trucks.  States  also  made  various  arrangements  including nomination  of  nodal  officer  for  coordination  and  setting  up  monitoring  cell  to  facilitate  free movement of vehicles carrying fruits, vegetable and other essential food items.

Further,  to  address  the  transportation  issues  of  Farmers  and  other  stake  holders  during Covid-19,  the  Government  has  launched  the  Kisan  Rath  Mobile  App  on  17.04.2020.  The  App facilitates  the  Farmers,  FPOs  and  Traders  to  post  their  load  requests  which  are  sent  to  transport aggregators and individual transporters who can respond to the load requests.

To  ensure the continuous supply of essential goods, hindrance free  movement  of transportation  &  real  time  monitoring  of  supply  &  prices,  Ministry  of  Agriculture  &  Farmers' Welfare had created a Whatsapp group in coordination with senior officials from State Agriculture Marketing  Boards  (SAMBs)  to  monitor  the  functioning  of  APMCs,  monitor  supply  &  price  of essential goods  &  facilitate inter-state transportation of essential  goods  during  COVID-19 lockdown.

(b): Operation Greens Scheme, being implemented by Ministry of Food Processing Industries, has been extended from tomato, onion and potato (TOP) crops to other notified horticulture crops for  providing  subsidy  for  their  transportation  and  storage  from  surplus  production  area  to  major consumption centers for the period of six months on pilot basis.

(c): The scheme guidelines were notified and uploaded in the  Ministry's website on 11.06.2020. Total 19 fruits and 14 vegetables have been notified under the Scheme. Under the scheme, the there is  a  provision  for  subsidy  at  the  rate  of  50%  of  the  cost  of  transportation  of  notified  crops  from surplus production cluster to consumption center; and/or hiring of appropriate storage facilities, in case their price in the notified production clusters meet any one of the following conditions:

i. Price fall below preceding 3 years' average market price at the time of harvest;

ii. Price fall more than 15% compared to last year market price at the time of harvest;

iii. Price fall less than the benchmark price for procurement, if any, fixed by the State/Central Government for a specified period;

From Tamil Nadu State, 47 number of production clusters for the different horticulture crops namely Amla (Nelli Kai), Banana, Beans, Carrot, Guava, Mango,Onion, Papaya, Passion fruit and Tomato crops have been notified in the 'List of eligible crops, selected surplus production clusters & trigger price' for intervention under the Extended Operation Greens Scheme. The farmers from Tamil Nadu can register on the online portal and can submit the claim for subsidy after meeting the eligibility criteria stipulated in the scheme guidelines. So far, 152 applicants from Tamil Nadu have registered on the portal.

(d) & (e): Government has promulgated 'The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and  Facilitation),  Ordinance,  2020'  to  promote  barrier-free  inter-state  and  intra-state  trade  in farmers' produce to facilitate remunerative prices to farmers in trade areas.

As  informed  by  Government  of  Tamil  Nadu,  in  the  State  282  Regulated  Markets  are functioning under the control of 26 market committees where necessary infrastructure facilities like Transaction shed, Storage godown, trader shops, cold storages, farmers rest room, toilet facilities etc., are available for the benefit of the farmers. As per the Tamil Nadu Ordinance No:6 of 2020 the private  market,  private  market  sub  yard  (Ware  houses,  cold  storages,  Silo),  Direct  marketing  are declared as deemed market. This will increase the mandi facilities for farm produces. In Tamil Nadu 111 cold storages, 64 primary processing centres are available for the benefit of the farmers.

(f): The Government has implemented National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) scheme, an online virtual  trading  platform  to  provide  farmers  and  Farmer  Producer  Organizations  (FPOs)  with opportunity to directly sell their produce from their collection center at remunerative prices through competitive online bidding system. So far, 1000 wholesale regulated markets across 18 States and 3 Union Territories (UTs) have been integrated with e-NAM platform.