Thread by @someshjha7

Finance Minister @nsitharaman begins her third press conference this week on the next set of announcement related to #COVID19 economic package. #COVID2019india #CoronaUpdatesInIndia #COVID19India

PM had spoken about supply chain reforms and how technology-driven systems should work and how demography has to benefit from it. Deriving from all this, the third tranche of economic package is focusing on agriculture and allied activities: FM

Large part of our population still dependent on agriculture. 85% holding is by small and marginal farmers. Inspite all adversities, farmers have stood up and helped India reach certain global benchmark. India is largest milk, jute and pulses producer in the world: FM

I will be announcing 11 measures.

8 relates to strengthening capacity and infrastructure. Govt will allocate money and we can quickly ramp up on these.

Rest 3 will pertain to government and administrative reforms.

There will be a presentation on the set of reform measures taken by the government in past two months, the FM says before asking junior finance minister Anurag Thakur to do a Hindi translation of what she has said so far.

In last two months, a number of measures have been taken to support farmers where minimum support price purchases worth Rs 74,300 crore had taken place during the lockdown. Rs 18,700 crore transferred to bank accounts of farmers under the PM Kisan Samman in two months: FM

Now today's announcements.

We provide Rs 1 lakh crore (Rs 1 trillion) for aggregators, FPOs, primary agri coop societies for strengthening the farm gate infrastructure - cold chains, post harvest management infra, storage centres. The fund will be created at the earliest: FM

For micro food enterprises - We shall be providing a fund of Rs 10,000 crore which will get executed with a cluster-based approach: FM

200,000 enterprises will benefit from this move: FM

Rs 20,000 crore for fishermen under the SAMPADA Yojana

This will lead to 70 lakh tonnes of additional fish production in 5 years

As you can see, our focus is on the fact that India starts on its own, it gets help to start on its own, rather than giving entitlements: FM

We have to ensure a 100% vaccination of all cattle, buffalo, goat, etc. Nearly 53 crore (530 million) animals in India and food-and-mouth disease has to be eradicated. Around Rs 13,000 crore will be spent towards this: FM

Rs 15,000 crore to be spent on dairy infrastructure. Hope many private investments can come into this area. Various items: milk, butter, ghee, cheese, etc are all possible through this. Animal husbandry infra development fund being established: FM

Rs 4,000 crore to be allocated for promoting herbal cultivation: FM

Beekeeping is an initiative recognised globally. Rs 500 crore for beekeeping initiatives being allocated to benefit 200,000 people in rural areas. In India, wax for all purposes are being imported. This can be stopped through this initiative: FM

Essential Commodities Act of 1955 will be amended to make sure cereals, edible oil, onion, potatoes, etc to be de-regulated: FM

Farmers to get adequate choice to sell stock at an adequate price. Will bring a central law for this. The farmer will not have any barrier on inter-state trade. There should be a framework for the produce to be traded online. Farmers can only sell to licensees right now: FM

We find that farmers do not have a standard mechanism which can be enforced for them to get predictable price of produce. At time of sowing, farmers go in with uncertainties. A legal framework will be brought in to enable farmers to fix their own price: FM

- End of the announcements for today -

The Press Information Bureau Director General indicates that the Finance Minister will make two more announcements - one tomorrow and the other day after.