Capt Amarinder seeks hike in rabi crops to ease farmers’ woes

Tribune News Service 
Chandigarh, June 12

In a bid to further alleviate the woes of the state’s distressed farmers, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has asked for a hike in Minimum Support Price (MSP) on various crops for Rabi 2019-20 from the Central Government.

On the directives of the Chief Minister, the State Agriculture Department has come out with a detailed proposal for the hike in the MSP of wheat from Rs 1,840 per quintal in 2018-19 to Rs 2,710 in 2019-20, and barley from Rs 1,440 to Rs 1,974 per quintal.

The proposal, submitted to the Commission for Agriculture Costs & Prices (CACP), also seeks hike in the MSP of gram from the earlier Rs 4,620 to Rs 5,631 per quintal and of rapeseed and mustard from Rs 4,200 to Rs 5,384 per quintal.

The hike, said the Chief Minister, was important for promoting crops like barley, gram, rapeseed and mustard in the state, to give much needed push for crop diversification that would help arrest the deleting ground water table in Punjab.

Amarinder said while the state government has taken all possible steps to ease the problems of the farmers, including farm debt waiver, the Centre’s intervention was needed to support these measures, especially in the matter of MSP which was under its control.

The Chief Minister reiterated his demand for in toto implementation of the MS Swaminathan Commission report to ensure the much-needed improvement in the agriculture system and better remuneration for the farmers.