Sep 8, 2020
‘Operation Greens’ extended from TOP to TOTAL
To prevent distress sale of all agri-produce of fruits and vegetables by the farmers of Jammu & Kashmir Union Territory, the Government of India has extended the price stabilization intervention scheme to fruits and vegetables produced in within the state. This will act as major initiative to help the farmers where price stability is concerned.
Under the above scheme, MoFPI and Government of India, will be providing 50 percent of the cost of transportation of listed crops from production clusters to consumption centres or the cost of hiring of appropriate storage facilities for a period of up to three months, if the price of the crop falls below the average price of the last three years or is 15 percent below the last year’s price.
The list of notified fruits and vegetables of Jammu and Kashmir, which have been included in the scheme; are apple, almond, capsicum, carrot, cucumber, okra, orange, kinnow, pear and lemon.
On a pilot basis, these fruits and vegetables of Jammu and Kashmir have been brought under the scheme for a period of six months. A formal communication in this regard has been received by the Lt Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Manoj Sinha, from the Union Minister of Food Processing Industries, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, vide D.O No: – M-15/1/2018/193, dated 6th August, 2020.
The new initiative under ‘Operation Greens’ scheme is a part of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan of Govt of India to support farmers. “In order to prevent distress sales, Price stabilization interventions under Central Sector Scheme ‘Operation Greens’ has been extended from Tomato, Onion and Potato (TOP) to all notified fruits and vegetables (TOTAL) for a period of six months on a pilot basis,” reads the communiqué from Centre.
Government of J&K also tweeted today: “As part of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, GoI announces extension of price stabilization interventions under ‘Operation Greens’ scheme to all notified fruits and vegetables; the imitative will support fruit and vegetable farmers and prevent distress sale.”
Relevant to mention here that because of inadequate facility of storage cold chain and limited connectivity, farmers of Jammu and Kashmir have had been facing various problems of distress sale of their crop thus suffering huge losses.
It may be recalled that ‘Operation Greens’ was announced in the Budget Speech of 2018-19 on the line of `Operation Flood’, with an outlay of Rs. 500 crore to promote Farmer Producers Organizations (FPOs), agri-logistics, processing facilities and professional management.
Accordingly, the Ministry formulated a scheme for integrated development of Tomato, Onion and Potato (TOP) value chain with objective to enhance value realisation of TOP farmers by connecting them with the market, price stabilization for producers and consumers, reduction in post-harvest losses, development of suitable agro-logistics, creation of appropriate storage capacity linking consumption centres, increase in food processing capacities and value addition, setting up of a market intelligence network to collect and collate real time data on demand and supply and price of TOP crops.