Any harm to farmers will further damage economy: AICC Secretary

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, September 19

Former minister and AICC secretary Sudhir Sharma, in a statement issued here today, said that the farm Bills passed in Parliament were against the interests of small farmers. Farmers were the backbone of the country’s economy, and any harm to them would further damage the economy, which was already in a poor state, he added.

Sharma said that the farmers of Kangra and Una districts sell their produce in the mandis of Punjab. They got the minimum support price (MSP) for their wheat and paddy produce from the government procurement agencies. Once the government agencies were out of the buying process, private players would decide the prices of the produce. In case of apple, the state farmers were already being exploited by middlemen. Now, farmers producing wheat and paddy would also be at the receiving end, he added.

The former minister said that the state government was bound to lose revenue in the form of market fee that it used to collect on the sale and purchase of agricultural products in the mandis.

In contract farming, which the present government had been promoting, farmers would end up as losers. The farmers in the state were small and required government support. They had been demanding more support from the Union and state governments, but unfortunately whatever little they had was being snatched from them, Sudhir alleged.