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NEW DELHI: The Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday suggested states to incentivise farmers for direct marketing of farm produce at their doorstep which would prevent crowding in ‘mandis’ (agri markets) and urged them to come out with necessary reforms which would promote this farm to fork approach.The suggestions came during his interaction with chief ministers of all states via video conferencing to strategise on tackling the COVID-19 spread amid indication of extension of lockdown beyond April 14.Taking forward the agriculture ministry’s key reform agenda on making farmers free from ‘mandi’ regulation, the Prime Minister suggested that the states should modify their respective Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) laws to facilitate sale of farm produce outside the designated ‘mandis’.Besides decongesting agri markets, the move will also allow direct marketing of farm produce by farmers without involving middlemen. States will, however, have to facilitate it by allowing movement of trucks or refrigerated vans in a regulated manner through a well laid out plan. Couple of states, including Maharashtra, have already been doing it where suppliers are using App-based system to facilitate movement of fruits and vegetables.The agriculture ministry has over the past 10 days issued multiple directions to states to ensure that those measures are taken during the lockdown period so that farmers do not have to suffer and the supply chain of essential food items can be maintained.One of the measures was to suggest states to issue authorization letters to companies or farmer producer organisations (FPOs), having nation-wide supply chain of essential goods, for easy movement of farm produce and, seeds and pesticides as farmers in few states have already started their sowing operation of Kharif (summer sown) crops such as paddy, millets, pulses and oilseeds.Agriculture ministry’s report shows that the farmers have been successfully sowing their summer crops, mainly paddy, in few states such as West Bengal, Telangana, Assam, Odisha, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh despite lockdown. Certain exemptions from the lockdown restrictions have helped them to continue with their sowing operation.Data, released by ministry, shows the sown area of summer crops has increased by 11.64 lakh hectares as on Friday compared to the sown area during the corresponding week last year.As against a total cultivated area of 37.12 lakh hectares as on April 10 last year, the summer crops have been sown in 48.76 lakh hectares of land as on April 10 this year - which is higher than even the normal sown area (41.81 lakh hectares) of corresponding week during the season.Though this is an encouraging sign during the lockdown period, a clear picture of sowing of Kharif crops will emerge only during the monsoon season (June-September) — a peak period of summer sowing operation in India.At present, the primary focus has been on harvesting of remaining Rabi (winter sown) crops such as wheat, mustard and gram and their procurement.In order to maintain supply of farm produce, the agriculture ministry, meanwhile, on Saturday asked Mission Directors of Horticulture and Concerned Secretaries of States/UTs to mobilise all their resources to take advantage of the special trains. Indian Railways is, currently, running 134 trains (Parcel Special Trains) on 67 routes to supply perishable commodities including fruits, vegetables, milk and dairy products and seeds.The Parcel Specials have been planned to connect all the major cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru.“In addition, proper connectivity has also been ensured to Guwahati, to maintain supplies in the North-eastern region of the country,” said the ministry.Other important cities connected via these trains are Bhopal, Allahabad, Dehradun, Varanasi, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Ranchi, Gorakhpur, Thiruvananthapuram, Salem, Warangal, Vijayawada, Vishakhapatanam, Rourkela, Bilaspur, Bhusawal , Tatanagar, Jaipur, Jhansi, Agra, Nasik, Nagpur, Akola, Jalgaon, Surat, Pune, Raipur, Patna, Asansol, Kanpur, Jaipur, Bikaner, Ajmer, Gwalior, Mathura, Nellore and Jabalpur.