The newly recast Union Cabinet has hit the ground running with a slew of confidence-building measures. During its first meeting, the Cabinet on Thursday approved a Rs 23,123-crore package for improving health infrastructure to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, besides allowing Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs) to utilise Rs 1 lakh crore financing facility under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF). With these decisions, the Union government has clearly zeroed in on its priority sectors: healthcare and agriculture. The waning of the second wave of Covid-19 has given the Centre breathing space to review and augment its pandemic preparedness by plugging various gaps. The overarching objective is to ensure that the authorities are not caught off guard and ill-equipped as and when the third wave hits the country. The action plan suggests that lessons have been drawn from the nightmarish experience of the second wave, when tens of thousands of people had died due to unavailability or shortage of oxygen, ventilators, ICU beds and medicines.

Even as the farmers have announced to intensify their agitation against the farm laws during the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament, the Centre has again reached out to the protesters and attempted to allay their fears. The move to bolster the APMC mandis through financial support makes it evident that the existing procurement system and the MSP regime are here to stay. The government had launched the AIF last year with the aim of facilitating investment in viable projects for post-harvest management infrastructure and community farming assets. These steps are intended to strengthen agriculture, the only sector that had held its own during the Covid-induced nationwide lockdown last year. It is also heartening that the ongoing 2021-22 rabi marketing season has witnessed a record procurement of wheat — over 433 lakh tonnes so far.

In view of these developments, the time is ripe for the Centre and the protesting farmers to resume talks and end the stalemate. It’s worrying that no round of negotiations has been held after the January 26 violence. The stakeholders should not miss this opportunity to save agriculture from being crippled by one-upmanship.