No decision on legal guarantee of minimum support price at present

27-Jul-2024 11:13 AM

New Delhi. On the question of giving legal guarantee of minimum support price (MSP) for various crops, no concrete assurance was given by the government, which led to uproar in the Rajya Sabha. During the question hour in the Rajya Sabha, there was uproar on the issue of farmers and MSP.

In fact, a Samajwadi Party MP raised this issue and said that on 12 July 2000, a committee was formed to consider the problems of the farmers and to give evidence of measures to overcome it.

But now even after 24 years, no concrete result has come out in this matter. In response to this, the Union Agriculture Minister said that this committee was formed for three purposes, which included providing MSP and making the system transparent,

providing more autonomy to agricultural price and suggesting measures to strengthen the agricultural distribution system.

Since its formation, 22 meetings of the committee have been held but its report has not come out yet. When the recommendation of the committee is received, it will be considered. The opposition was not satisfied with this statement of the Agriculture Minister.

It said that this is an atmosphere of uncertainty whereas the Minister should clearly state whether the government wants to give legal status to MSP or not.

The Agriculture Minister said that the government is regularly increasing the minimum support price of 23 crops and a huge amount of paddy and wheat is also being purchased. A subsidy of Rs 1.68 lakh crore is being given on fertilizers. The interests of farmers are being taken care of.