Agriculture ministry in talks to take over tomato, onion, potato scheme

livemint.com:

New Delhi: The Union agriculture ministry is in talks with the food processing industries ministry to take over a scheme aimed for the integrated development of the tomato, onion and potato (TOP) value chain, a government official aware of the matter said. The TOP scheme is part of Operation Greens, announced for 22 crops in the FY19 Union Budget. If finalized, the agriculture ministry will be able to support growers by purchasing these three perishable crops when their prices crash.

“Operation Greens did not really work out. The food processing industries ministry has not been able to operate the scheme effectively. Things are almost nil, especially for TOP crops.

The food processing industries ministry is in discussion with the ministry of agriculture," a government official aware of the matter said. “The food processing industries ministry keeps saying that TOP scheme is not amended; and given that the agriculture ministry has the market intervention scheme (MIS), the food processing industries ministry is trying to give away the TOP scheme to the agriculture ministry to implement it more effectively." “The agriculture ministry has not refused to take it over. They are examining taking over the TOP scheme for its better implementation.

However, the discussions are still at the initial stage between officials of both ministries," the official added. The agriculture ministry’s MIS is meant for market intervention when market prices of a commodity that is not covered by minimum support prices (MSP) crash. The ministry currently procures cereals, pulses and oilseeds at the government-announced MSP; however, there is no concept of government procurement at MSP for vegetables.