Operation Green: 50% Freight Subsidy for agricultural perishables

The Ministry of Food Processing and the ministry of Railways have jointly provided subsidised rate of 50% for freight transportation of perishable agriculture produce such as vegetables and fruits. The step is being implemented to boost Operation Green. Operation Green is implemented by Ministry of Food Processing.

Key Highlights

The ministries will provide 50% subsidies to farmers transporting surplus agricultural produce such as vegetables and fruits by train. Also, the ministry will provide 50% subsidy to cold chain storage of Agricultural commodities. In order to receive the subsidies, the farmers have to submit self-certified documents on “Sampada” portal. The portal is maintained by the Ministry of food processing.

Operation green

Operation Green is a price fixation. It ensures that the farmers are given the right price for their produce. The scheme promotes agri logistics, farmer producer organisations, processing facilities and management of Agricultural produce. It focuses mainly on onions, tomato and potatoes, that is TOP vegetables. This is achieved by connecting farmers and consumers.

Under the scheme the farmer producer organisation, state and other marketing federation can avail financial assistance. The Agricultural Market Committee will help in structural and infrastructural part of the scheme. This is to be achieved by connecting the markets to the e-NAM platform.

Strategies of the scheme

The scheme uses two prolonged strategies such as price stabilization measures and integrated value chain development projects.

Price Stabilization Measures

It is short term. The National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India is the nodal agency implementing the price stabilization measure. Under the ministry of food processing industry, 50% of subsidy is provided to transport tomato onion and potato and also higher appropriate storage facilities for these crops.

Integrated value chain development projects

It is a long-term strategy. It mainly focuses on quality production, agricultural logistics, capacity building of farmer producer organisations, post-harvest processing facilities, marketing consumption points, creation and management of a platform for demand and supply management.

Operation Flood

The operation green was launched on the lines of Operation Flood. The Operation Flood was begun by National Dairy Development Board in 1970. The main objective of Operation Flood was to to increase milk production in the country. This made India the largest producer of milk in 2016.

Benefits

The main advantage of implementing operation green is that it will help in doubling the farmers income by the end of 2022. It will resolve the problem of vegetable and fruits waste ages through modern storage facilities.

Month: Current Affairs - October, 2020