Lok Sabha Question No. 333 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-11-30
Subject: Agricultural Systems
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: S. Jagathrakshakan

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 333

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 30 th  NOVEMBER, 2021

## AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS

333.   SHRI S. JAGATHRAKSHAKAN:

Will the Minister of AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE कृ ष एवं कसान कयाण मंी be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the pandemic has exposed both the strengths and the vulnerabilities of India's  agri  food  systems,  and  has  also  emphasized  the  need  for  agricultural  market reforms and digital solutions to connect farmers to markets, create safety nets, ensure reasonable working conditions, and decentralize the agri food systems to make them more resilient; and
- (b) if so, the details of the steps taken by the Government in this regard, and if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

कृ ष एवं कसान कयाण मंी

(SHRI NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR)

- (a) & (b): As  per  Provisional  Estimates  of  Annual  National  Income,  released  by National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on 31st, May 2021, the share of Agriculture and Allied Sectors in total Gross Value Added (GVA) of the country has increased from 18.4% in 2019-20 to 20.2% in 2020-21 at current prices.

The  Gross  Value  Added  of  Agriculture  and  Allied  Sectors  at  current  price  has increased from 33.94 lakh crore in 2019-20 to 36.16 lakh crore in 2020-21.

In  order  to facilitate the marketing of agricultural produce of the farmers during the  COVID-19  pandemic,  the  Government  had  issued  advisory  to  States/Union Territories  (UTs)  to  facilitate  Direct  Marketing,  enabling  direct  purchase  from  the farmers/  Farmer  Producer  Organizations  (FPOs)/  Cooperatives  etc.  by  liberalizing regulations  under  respective  State  Agricultural  Produce  Market  Committee  (APMC) Acts.

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.

Further, in order to decongest wholesale markets, FPO trading module has been launched  to  facilitate  FPOs  to  trade  their  agri  produce  from  their  collection  centre without  bringing  the  produce  to  APMC.  Warehouse  based  trading  module  was  also launched  to  enable  farmers  to  sell  their  produce  from  WDRA  registered  warehouses notified as deemed market 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 in turn respond to the load requests. The Government has taken necessary measures to ensure smooth sowing and harvesting  operations  during  COVID-19  pandemic.   As  per  3 rd   advance  estimates  for 2020-21, total food grain production in the country is estimated at record 305.44 million tones which is higher by 7.94 million  tonnes than the production of food grain during 2019-20.  Similarly,  total  horticulture  production  in  2020-21  is  estimated  to  a  record 331.05 million tones which is an increase of about 10.6 million tone over that achieved in 2019-20.

*****