Committee constituted to strengthen MSP system

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 5

The government has constituted a committee to look into ways to strengthen the minimum support price (MSP) system for farmers, Minister of State for Agriculture Kailash Choudhary said in the Rajya Sabha on Friday. “A committee has been formed regarding diversification, natural farming and MSP,” the minister said while replying to a query during the Question Hour. It includes farmer representatives, state government representatives and Central government officials, he added.

The committee would look into ways to strengthen the MSP system and how farmers could take benefit out of the support price mechanism, the minister noted. The government would consider the recommendations of the committee, he added. Choudhary was replying to a question from Tiruchi Siva (DMK) who wanted to know whether the government had any plans to increase the MSP to 200 per cent of the production cost of the farmers.

Former Agriculture Secretary Sanjay Agrawal is the chairman of the committee.

Replying to a separate query from KR Suresh Reddy (TRS), Choudhary said the budgetary allocation for agriculture had been increasing year on year and had already touched Rs 1.32 lakh crore mark. “The agriculture budget, which stood at Rs 27,000 crore in 2013-14, has gone up to Rs 1.32 lakh crore,” the minister said. He noted that India was among the top 10 countries in terms of fund allocation to the agri sector.

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#Agriculture #Minimum Support Price MSP