A parliamentary panel on agriculture on Tuesday recommended that a “robust and legally binding” minimum support price regime be implemented in the country.
The Standing Committee on Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Food Processing, headed by Congress MP Charanjit Singh Channi, also urged the Union government to introduce a scheme to waive the debts of farmers and farm labourers “in view of the rising farmers’ debt and suicides linked to farm distress”.
The minimum support price is a guaranteed amount paid to farmers when the government buys their produce. It is meant to act as a safety net, with the government directly buying a crop from farmers if the market price falls below the minimum support price it has set.
The Centre fixes a minimum support price for 23 agricultural commodities grown in the kharif and rabi seasons. However, it consistently purchases only rice and wheat for its food security schemes.
Although the government announces minimum support prices as a regular practice, it is not legally mandated to do so, and there is no law to enforce the prices. Thus, farmers are often forced to sell agricultural produce at rates below the minimum support prices.
Due to this, farmers have been protesting in recent years demanding a legal mandate for minimum support price and to ensure that it is fixed based on the MS Swaminathan committee recommendation of 50% more than the cost of production.
On Tuesday, the parliamentary committee chaired by Channi also urged the Centre to increase budgetary allocations to agriculture. It pointed out that the share of agriculture in fund allocation by the Centre fell from 3.5% of the total outlay in 2020-’21 to 2.5% in 2024-’25.
The panel also recommended that the department of agriculture and farmers welfare should explore the possibility of providing compulsory universal crop insurance to farmers with land holding of up to two hectares on the lines of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, a health insurance scheme.
Also read:
- Farm protests: Why the government’s promise to buy crops at minimum support prices is often hollow
- The farmers’ demand for an MSP law is linked to an environmental crisis. Here’s how
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