In the third installment of announcements of the special economic package, Nirmala Sitharaman announced that Operation Greens would be expanded from Tomatoes, Onions, and Potatoes, called TOP, to other fruits and vegetables too.
Operation Greens is a government-approved project that aims at maintaining the supply of tomato, onion, and potato crops (TOP crops) across India to make sure that these crops are available across the country throughout the year without price fluctuations.
Under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat scheme, a 500-crore scheme called 'Top to Total' has been launched to amend the supply chains that have been badly affected by the lockdowns.
As the lockdowns are being extended seeing the adversely increasing cases of coronavirus across the nation, the Centre had been concerned about the farmers who were not being able to sell their produce at fair prices. The farmers are bound to reduce the prices of the perishable items and are facing a huge loss. To acknowledge this concern, the ‘Top to Total’ scheme has been introduced by the Centre, which promises to provide a 50 percent subsidy on transportation from surplus to deficit markets and a 50 percent subsidy on storage, including cold storage.
The scheme will be implemented on a pilot basis for six months. There are chances of this scheme being expanded and extended in later months. As per the finance minister, the scheme will help farmers get better prices for their produce and will also lower the wastage of perishable items, making farm produce affordable to consumers.
