Too beef up supply chains across the country, the Railways has notified 109 time-tabled parcel trains to supply essential commodities, including perishable horticulture produce, seeds, milk and dairy products along 59 routes, an official statement from Agriculture Ministry said on Thursday.

“With this, almost all the important cities of India will get connected for transportation of essential and perishable goods at a fast speed,” the Ministry said, adding that this would be scaled up further.

Market Intervention Scheme

The Centre has also given permission to the States to introduce Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) in their respective States if market prices of perishable agricultural and horticultural produce are falling. Under the scheme, the Centre and the State would share the expenditure in equal basis, except in the case of northeastern States where the Centre would foot 75 per cent of the bill.

The government also decided to allow the States to decide when they want to start the Price Support Scheme for pulses and oilseeds. The States can run the scheme for 90 days from the date of commencing it.

PM-Kisan scheme

The Ministry said under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme as many as 7.92 crore farmers have been given the ₹2,000 installment since the lockdown started on March 25.

The government has allowed direct selling of produce by farmers, farmer producer organisations and cooperatives to bulk buyers, big retailers and processors limiting the regulation under the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee Act through an advisory issued to the State governments on April 4. Several States such as Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Jharkhand have already initiated action on lines of the issued advisory, the statement said.

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