Chandigarh August 22: Union Agriculture Minister Mr.Sharad Pawar today gave in principle assurance to the Punjab Chief Minister Mr.Parkash Singh Badal that Government of India would soon announce an adequate hike in the MSP of paddy well before the start of procurement to compensate the expenses of farmers in remenumerative terms for high costs of agricultural inputs incurred by them.
An assurance to this effect was given by Mr.Pawar to the Punjab Chief Minister who called on the former in his office at Krishi Bhawan in New Delhi this afternoon. Mr.Badal demanded the fixation of MSP of common variety of Paddy and Grade A- Variety atRs.1400 and Rs.1500 per qtl respectively. It may be recalled the GoI had fixed Rs.850 per qtl for common variety and Rs880/- for Grade-A variety of paddy as the minimum support price for the Kharif Marketing Season 2008-09 against the MSP of Rs.1000/- per qtl recommended by Costs and Prices Commission for Agriculture.
Mr.Badal pointed out that the debt ridden farmers of Punjab deserved much needed support so that they continue to contribute food grains for the Central Pool to suitably augment the food security of the Country.
Responding to the demand of hike in paddy’s MSP,Mr.Pawar also assured the Chief Minister that besides the likely upward revision of MSP, the Ministry of Agriculture was seriously contemplating to announce a suitable bonus over and above the enhanced MSP of paddy.
The Chief Minister also impressed upon Mr.Pawar to ensure timely arrangements for uninterrupted supply of 4.8 lac MT. of DAP to Punjab before the on set of Rabi season. Mr.Badal also sought the Union Agriculture Ministry’s permission to export wheat and rice to the international Market as done by Minerals & Metals Trading Corporation (MMTC) and State Trading Corporation (STC) on behalf of GoI, because the state agencies like Markfed, Punjab Agro Industries Corporation & Punjab State Warehousing Corporation had adequate experience of exporting food grains.
The Chief Minister also demanded that administrative /establishment cost on both wheat and paddy should be reimbursed @Rs2.5% of MSP’s from 2008-09. At present reimbursement of these charges @Rs 2.5% were only applicable in case of wheat and the state government had been consistently representing that 2.5 % of MSP is quite insufficient and did not fully cover the administrative expenses and demanded its reimbursement on both the crops wheat and paddy.Mr.Badal also impressed upon the Union Agriculture Minister to declare PUSA-1121 as Basmati as the Indian Council of Agricultural Research had already forwarded its recommendation to Secretary(Agriculture and Cooperation) Govt. of India. Mr Badal mentioned that the area under this variety had more than doubled in Punjab due to better returns to the farmers during Kharif 2007(yield 18-22 quintals per acre and market price Rs.1900-200 per quintal). He requested Mr.Pawar that the notification regarding PUSA-1121 to be treated as ‘evolved basmati’ variety should be issued immediately.
Referring to the National Food Security Mission-Wheat, Mr.Badal asked the Agriculture Minister to adopt the remaining ten districts in view of Punjab’s tremendous contribution towards the Central Pool as this initiative would further boost the prospects of high yield of wheat both qualitatively and quantitatively. He also solicited Agriculture ministry support for change in norms of Rashtriya Krishi Vigyan Yojna (RKVY) to compensate for repairs and maintenances of the existing developed Irrigation infrastructure.
Mr.Pawar assured the Chief Minister that he would soon address all the pending issues of the Punjab Government relating to agriculture and also directed the Secretary Food Distribution and Consumer Affairs to immediately enhance the quota of food grains under Public Distribution System for APL (Above Poverty Line) families in Punjab.
The Chief Minister was accompanied by the Cooperation Minister Capt.Kanwaljit Singh,Food and Civil Supplies Minister Mr.Adesh Partap Singh Kairon, his Media Advisor Mr.Harcharan Bains, Principal Secretary,Mr.D.S.Guru, Principal Secretary Food and Civil Supplies Mr.R.P.S.Pawar, Spl.Principal Secretary Mr.K.J.S.Cheema besides the top senior functionaries of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, Public Distribution and Consumer Affairs.