Prices of Agricultural Products

The Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (DA&FW) implements the Marketing Research and Information Network, sub scheme of Integrated Scheme for Agricultural Marketing (ISAM), since 2000, to link important Agricultural Produce Markets spread all over the country and the State Agriculture Marketing Boards and Directorates spread over the country and collect, collate and disseminate the mandi prices & arrival data. The National Agriculture Market (eNAM), launched on 14.04.2016, is a pan-India electronic trading portal that networks the existing Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) mandis to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities. The e-NAM aims to remove information asymmetry between buyers and sellers and promote real time price discovery based on actual demand and supply. Further, the Market Intelligence Units of the Department makes regular visit to agricultural markets to send price reports.

The Government has taken several steps at the State and District levels to promote exports. State specific Action Plans have been prepared and State Level Monitoring Committees (SLMCs), Nodal Agencies for agricultural exports and Cluster Level Committees have been formed in a number of States. Country and product-specific action plans have also been formulated to promote exports. The Government is also utilizing the District as Export Hub Initiative to achieve the objectives of Agriculture Export Policy. Under the District as Export Hub initiative, products including agricultural and processed food products with export potential have been identified in all 733 districts across the country. State Export Strategy has been prepared in 28 States/UTs.

The Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), a statutory organisation under the administrative control of Department of Commerce, has the mandate to promote exports of agricultural and processed food products. APEDA has been providing assistance to the exporters under various components of its Export Promotion Scheme. The Department of Commerce provides financial assistance to promote exports, including exports of agricultural products through Market Access Initiatives (MAI) Scheme, and Export Promotion Schemes of Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), Commodity Boards: Tea Board, Coffee Board, Spices Board etc.

Further, a Farmer Connect Portal has been developed for providing a platform for farmers, and Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) and cooperatives for interacting with exporters. Buyer-Seller Meets (BSMs) have been organized in the clusters to provide export-market linkages. Regular interactions, through video conferences, have been held with the Indian Missions abroad, to assess and tap export opportunities. Country specific BSMs, through Indian Missions, have also been held.

The Government has undertaken the following measures for food storage and processing. Food Corporation of India (FCI) continuously assesses and monitors the storage capacity and based on the storage gap assessment, storage capacities are created/hired through the following schemes: 1) Construction of Silos under Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode 2) Private Entrepreneurs Guarantee (PEG) Scheme 3) Central Sector Scheme (CSS), 4) hiring of godown from Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) / State Warehousing Corporations (SWCs)/State Agencies and 5) hiring of godown through Private Warehousing Scheme (PWS). Various steps have been taken for updating logistics and storage systems using scientific methods at Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC). The Warehouse Management System software for online transactions is implemented to monitor the logistics and storage system on a pan India basis.

Financing facility under Agricultural Infrastructure Fund (AIF): financial assistance is being provided for post-harvest management infrastructure including warehouse and cold chains. National Horticulture Board (NHB) is implementing a scheme,    namely   “Capital  Investment  Subsidy for Construction/Expansion/Modernization of Cold Storages and Storage of Horticulture Products”. Further, under Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH), financial assistance is provided for creating of cold storage capacity up to 5000 MT.

The Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) has been implementing Central Sector umbrella scheme- Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY) since 2017-18 with the aim to augment preservation and processing capacity so as to reduce post-harvest losses, create employment, and enhance value addition & increase exports of processed foods. Under PMKSY, financial assistance in the form of grants-in-aid is being provided to the eligible entities for establishing food processing projects through its component schemes namely, Mega Food Park (MFP) Scheme, Scheme for Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure(Cold Chain), Scheme for creation of Infrastructure for Agro-Processing Clusters(APC), Scheme for Creation/Expansion of Food Processing and Preservation Capacities(CEFPPC), Operation Greens (OG), Scheme for Creation of Backward and Forward Linkages(CBFL). As on 02.02.2024, 940 projects have been approved under these Schemes leading to creation of 256.32 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) per annum processing capacity and 37.60 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) per annum of preservation capacity.

This information was given by the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Shri Arjun Munda in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.