Operation Greens Scheme By MoFPI

This article will talk about ‘Operation Greens’ initiated by the Government of India in the 2018-2019 union budget with the aim to stabilize the supply of Tomato, Onion, and Potato -TOP crops in the country. 

The Finance Minister of India on the line of Operation Flood or White Revolution had announced Operation Greens. As Operation Greens was recently in the news, it holds importance for the general awareness section of various competitive exams. 

Background of Operation Greens

With an outlay of 500 crores, a new scheme operation Greens was announced by the Finance Minister in the Union Budget 2018-2019. Currently, Operation Green is currently housed in the Ministry of Food Processing Industries or MoFPI. NAFED is the Nodal Agency to implement price stabilisation measures.

The scheme Operation Greens is on the line of Operation Flood and aims to promote FPO – Farmer Producers Organizations, processing facilities, agri-logistics, and professional management of agricultural produce.

What is Operation Greens?

Operation Greens is a scheme to fix the right prices for farmers’ produce. It aims to ensure that farmers are given the right price for the resource created by them. The program focuses on organized marketing of TOP vegetables i.e. Tomatoes, Onions, and Potatoes by connecting the farmers with consumers.

Through Operation Greens government plans to provide financial assistance to Farmer Producer Organizations, State Agriculture and other Marketing Federations, cooperatives, companies, food processors, Self-help groups, etc.

The E-NAM platforms* will be connected to the Agriculture Produce Market Committee* so as to help in the structural and infrastructure part of Operation Greens scheme. The government has also decoded help in the development of 22,000 agricultural markets under this scheme.

*Agricultural Produce Market Committee – APMC is a statutory market committee constituted by a State Government in respect of trade in certain notified agricultural or livestock or horticultural products, under the Agricultural Produce Market Committee Act. 

*The e-National Agriculture Market (E-NAM) is an important initiative of the Government of India to use electronic trading portal pan-India for bidding and network the existing APMC mandis to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities.

Objectives of Operation Greens 

• Stabilisation of prices for consumers and producers by proper planning in the production of TOP clusters and introduction of dual use varieties.
• Improving value realisation of TOP farmers by targeted interventions to strengthen FPOs and TOP production clusters and linking them with the market.
• Reducing after harvest losses by creating farm gate infrastructure, appropriate storage capacity, developing suitable agro-logistics and linking consumption centres.
• Increase in food processing capacities and value addition in the TOP value chain with firm linkages with production clusters.
• Setting up a market intelligence network to collect real-time data on price and demand and supply of TOP crops. 

You can also read about the following Agricultural Revolutions in India:

The need for Operation Greens

• The idea behind the Operation Greens scheme is to double the income of farmers by the end of 2022. It is launched on the lines of Operation Flood and seeks to reiterate the success of milk in vegetables and fruits.
• When the production of vegetable commodities increases sharply the prices crash because there is not enough modern storage capacity. Therefore, the scheme seeks to solve the problem of storage capacity.
• The Framers often receive less than 1/4th of what consumers pay for the produce. This is because the links between processing and organized retailing in India is weak and small.
• The scheme Operation Greens will focus on these problems for basic ingredients and not on additional commodities in agriculture.

Knowledge of Operation Greens, its objectives, strategies and needs is important and can be asked in various exams like bank exam, SSC, RRB and other Government exams.

Aspirants of UPSC exam should prepare Operation Greens topic for Static GK section and Geography GS I Paper.

Strategies of Operation Greens Scheme

The scheme Operation Greens have two-pronged strategies:

1. Price stabilisation measures for short term
2. Integrated value chain development projects for the long term.

Short term Price Stabilisation Measures:

• The hiring of appropriate storage facilities for TOP Crops
• NAFED will be the nodal agency to implement price stabilization. NAFED stands for the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India.
• The Ministry of Food Processing Industry will provide 50% of the subsidy on Transportation of TOP Crops from production to storage.

Long Term Integrated value chain development projects:

• Agri-Logistics
• Building the capacity of FPOs & their consortium
• Quality of production
• Processing facilities Post-harvest such as marketing and linking the consumption Points
• Creation and Management of e-platform for the management of demand and supply of TOP Crops.

Operation Greens- Download PDF Here

Operation Greens – Way Forward

There is a need to link consumption and production centres with a minimal number of intermediaries. Also, linking the processing industry with organized retailing is imperative so that about one-fourth of the product must be processed. The government can ease price fluctuations, ensure lower prices for the consumers and raise farmers’ share in the price paid by the consumer at the same time by developing forward and backward linkages. The announcement of increasing Budget allocation for the food processing industry by 100% is a welcome step in this regard.

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