Ashok Verma
Bathinda/ August 06, 2020: Union minister for food processing industries Mrs Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Thursday wrote to all chief ministers of India, requesting them to spread awareness among farmers about the new GoI initiative – “Operation Greens”.
As a part of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, Government of India has announced a new initiative to support farmers of fruits and vegetables. In order to prevent distress sales, price stabilisation interventions under Central Sector Scheme- “Operation Greens” have 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.
The MoFPI will provide subsidy @ 50 % of transport cost of notified crops from production clusters to consumption centres and/or the cost of hiring of appropriate storage facilities for a period of upto 3 months for notified crops, if the price of the crop falls below the average price of the last three years or is 15 % below last year's price.
While sharing the list of notified fruits and vegetable of their respective states, Mrs Badal requested the CMs to publicise the GOI scheme widely among farmers, so they can benefit from the scheme and enhance their incomes.
Divulging more details, the
Union minister said that apart from individual farmers, food processors, FPO/FPC, co-operative societies, licensed commission agents, exporters, state marketing, co-operative federations and retailers engaged in processing and marketing of fruits and vegetables were also eligible entities under the scheme.
Eligible entities who comply with the essential criteria can undertake transportation and storage of notified crops from notified surplus production cluster, without any prior approval from MoFPI and thereafter submit their claim on online portal. “The applicant should register on the portal before carrying out transportation/storage of fruits and vegetables”, she added.
Detailed operational guidelines of the scheme and lists of eligible crops, production clusters & trigger price are uploaded on ministry’s website: www.mofpi.nic.in. The online portal for registration and applying is https://sampada-mofpi.gov.in/OPGS_Subsidy/SubsidyReg.aspx.