Harsimrat Kaur Badal launches a portal to monitor prices of tomato, onion and potato

NEW DELHI: To curb price surge of certain farm produces and to bridge their demand-supply gaps, the government has come up with a portal to monitor prices, area under cultivation, yields, production, imports and exports and other relevant information such as crop calendars, crop agronomy in an easy to use visual format for agro processors, traders and policy makers.

To begin with, Market Intelligence and Early Warning System (MIEWS) will monitor prices of tomato, onion and potato- key ingredients in an Indian kitchen for generating alerts for government intervention.

Data from the Agricultural Marketing Information Network (Agmark) which covers 1200 mandis and another 128 mandis under Agriwatch will be used to infer trends, said officials,


“The government is aiming to strike balance between the interests of farm producers and consumers through this monitoring system that will generate nationwide database of agri commodities,” said food processing minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal while launching the portal.

She added that 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 state governments. “it will also help food processors from ketchup, flake to chips manufacturers to know the seasonal trend, expected prices in the months ahead and states where the crop availability is there,” she said

As per the terms of the scheme, during a glut situation, evacuation of surplus production from producing areas to consumption centres will be undertaken.

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 and import decision making, said Badal.

Nafed, additional MD, SK Singh said that they will give low price and high price alerts as well as price forecasts for three months forward, prices and arrivals of tomato, onion and potato crops across the country including interactive charts and comparisons with previous seasons. Sections like prices and arrivals, area, yield and production, crop agronomy and trade profile will be accessible to the public while the regular and special market intelligence reports and price forecasts will be accessible only to the policy makers.