The Department of Agriculture Cooperation and Farmers Welfare, Government of India is taking several measures to facilitate the farmers and farming activities at field level during the lock down period. The updated status is given below:

1. During the lockdown period the efforts have been made to use CROP software of Sectt. of Central Insecticide Board & Registration Committee (CIB&RC) through Virtual Private Network (VPN) to facilitate issuance of Certificates etc. through work from home by the Experts/ Officials. This endeavor has contributed significantly in the issuance of Certificate of Registration related to Indigenous Manufacturing and Import of Chemicals/Intermediates/Raw materials etc required for smooth functioning of Industrial Units/Plant etc involved in the production of crop protection chemicals and thereby ensuring the timely availability of the pesticides and crop protection chemicals to the famers.
2. During the period till date, CIB&RC have issued 33 Nos. of Import permits for import of more than 1.25 lakh metric tons of various chemicals. 189 certificates for exports have also been issued to facilitate exports of pesticides. 1263 certificates of registration have been issued in various categories to facilitate indigenous manufacturing of pesticides.
3. Due to lockdown, the Department has decided to conduct the National Conference on Kharif crops-2020 through Video Conference on 16^th April, 2020. The Union Agriculture Minister, Union Ministers of State (Agriculture) and senior officers of the Ministry will hold discussions with the States on challenges & strategies for crop management during Kharif cultivation and also guide the deliberations on timely availability of seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and farm machinery at Block levels and other issues related to crop management.

4. APEDA has put in lot of efforts and issues related to transportation, curfew passes, packaging units are being resolved. Exports of all major products i.e rice, groundnut, processed food, meat, poultry, dairy and organic products has started.

5. Railways introduced 67 routes for running 236 Parcel Specials(out of which 171 are time table parcel trains) to supply essential commodities including perishable horticultural produce, agricultural inputs, milk and dairy products at fast speed which will facilitate farmers/FPOs/traders and companies for continuity of supply chain across the country. The railways have established regular connectivity between major cities of the country and from State Headquarters to all parts of the State.

6. Railways have also made arrangements of parcel vans available for quick mass transportation by e-Commerce entities and other customers including State Governments.

7. Link for details regarding Parcel Special trains is available on the website indianrailways.gov.in and the direct link for details of Parcel Special trains is as under:

https://enquiry.indianrail.gov.in/mntes/q?opt=TrainRunning&subOpt=splTrnDtl

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APS/PK/MS