Govt helping farmers through TOP, other schemes during glut: Agri Minister

The Centre is compensating and helping farmers through various programmes including newly launched 'TOP scheme' in times of glut production of key vegetables, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said in Rajya Sabha on Friday.

The Agriculture Ministry is supporting farmers through schemes like Horticulture Mission, while the Food Processing Ministry has introduced a new scheme to promote processing of three vegetables -- tomato, onion and potato (TOP)-- in times of excess output and boost supplies in lean period, he said.

"It is true that sometimes farmers incur losses. The food processing ministry runs the TOP scheme. Now, it will start benefiting the farmers," Singh said during the Question Hour in the Upper House.

To another query, he said that several states like Uttar Pradesh had intervened and procured potato and other commodities when prices fell during 2015-16 and 2016-17. Transport subsidy was also given during last year in some states.

On why the government was not able to assess the supply-demand situation, Singh said that the governments in the past had not put in any such mechanism.

However, the Modi government through a scheme 'CHAMAN' is able to estimate the production of horticultural crops. The same information is being shared with state governments.