Union Minister of Food Processing Industries Smt. Harsimrat Kaur Badal on February 26, 2020 launched the– Market Intelligence and Early Warning System (MIEWS) Web Portal in New Delhi. This portal is a novel initiative of MoFPI ( Ministry of Food Processing Industries ) leveraging IT tools and furthering the goals of Digital India.
Features
The MIEWS Dashboard and Portal is a ‘first-of-its-kind’ platform for ‘real time monitoring’ of prices of tomato, onion and potato (TOP) and for simultaneously generating alerts for intervention under the terms of the Operation Greens(OG) scheme.
The portal would disseminate all relevant information related to TOP crops such as Prices and Arrivals, Area, Yield and Production, Imports and Exports, Crop Calendars, Crop Agronomy, etc in an easy to use visual format.
The MIEWS system is designed to provide advisories to farmers to avoid cyclical production as well as an early warning in situations of gluts. For decision makers, the MIEWS system will help in
- monitoring of supply situation for timely market intervention,
- assist in rapid response in times of glut to move produce from glut regions to deficit/consuming regions and
- providing inputs for export/import decision making.
Operation Green Scheme
In the budget speech of Union Budget 2018-19, a new Scheme “Operation Greens” was announced on the line of “Operation Flood”, with an outlay of Rs.500 crore to promote Farmer Producers Organizations (FPOs #), agri-logistics, processing facilities and professional management. Accordingly, the Ministry has formulated a scheme for integrated development of Tomato, Onion and Potato (TOP) value chain.
As per the terms of the OG Scheme, during a glut situation, evacuation of surplus production from producing areas to consumption centres will be undertaken as determined by the following:
- When the prices fall below preceding 3 years’ average market price at the time of harvest;
- When the prices fall more than 50% compared to last year’s market price at the time of harvest;
- When the prices fall less than the benchmark, if any, fixed by the State / Central Government for a specified period.
