(Image source from: thefirstreports.com)

On Friday, Nirmala Sitharaman, the Union Finance Minister announced the third phase where 11 measures were announced under “Atmanirbhar” for improving the economy with the available 20 Lakh crore package announced by Modi.

Among the 11 measures, 8 of them are for improving infrastructure and logistics. The other 3 are related to administrative reforms and Governance, says Nirmala Sitharaman.

Highlights

• The Finance Minister announced that infrastructure problems will be solved for all the agricultural startups
• 1 lakh crore will be given to FPOs for improving the farm-gate infrastructure for farmers. This amount will be used to set up cold chains and post-harvest management infrastructure.
• Farmers have been receiving support in the last two months
• 6,400 crores provided to the PM KISAN Card Scheme
• With the help of MSP, 74,300 crores have been purchased during the lockdown
• During the lockdown period, demand for milk dropped down by 25 percent
• To make the government’s “vocal for local with global outreach” known, Rs 10,000 crore schemes for Micro Food Enterprises to be formalized
• Region based specialty will be taken into consideration to help the MFE’s with a scheme of Rs 2 lakh. For example, the specialty in UP is mango and it is tapioca in Tamil Nadu. Likewise, every State will work on its specialty
• The scheme that is providing subvention at 2% p.a will give out 5000 crore additional cash and the farmers will be given benefits of 2 crores
• India will get a chance to improve its fisheries export as 20,000 crores has been allocated to aquaculture and marine related fisheries operations
• National Animal Disease Control programme to get Rs 13,000 crores
• Private Investments in diary to get the support of Rs 15,000 crores from the Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development. This is good for the private investments in diary
• Bee keeping farmers will be given Rs 2 lakh each for boosting the bee keeping sector so that we don’t need to purchase wax outside the country. In total, they have allocated 500 crores on this
• The Operation Greens that was limited to tomatoes, onions and potatoes has opened up for fruits and vegetables as well
• Essential Commodities Act to be amended. Items such as cereals, oilseeds, edible oils, pulses, potatoes and onions to be revised
• Farmers to get better marketing choices so that they don’t go through this struggle of inter-state trade within the country
• Before the sowing season begins, farmers will be provided with Quality Assurance and Agriculture product price instructions. Large retailers, exporters and food processors will be a part of this process

By Neha Makhija