Centre working out a policy to help farmers

New Delhi, December 6

The Central government  is working out a policy to make agriculture a viable venture, and to ensure that farmers continue to be rooted to their farm land.

“The government is framing a policy to ensure that farmers remain rooted to their land, and those who have quit agriculture, return,” said Union Minister of State for Agriculture Parshottam Rupala to the Rajya Sabha on Friday in response to a supplementary during Question Hour.

This was in response to KTS Tulsi, who pointed out that net returns to farmers had decreased and contribution of the agriculture to the GDP had nosedived from 50 per cent to 17 in 2017-18.

He asked if the  government had plans to  correct the trend of the slide-down.

Rupala said the government had spent manifold from 2014-19  in comparison to the UPA government during 2009-14. He further said while the MSP for crop produce was fixed by the Centre, the procurement and purchase in the states was done by the respective local governments. — TNS