On Friday, Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan assured the Rajya Sabha that the Narendra Modi government would buy all farm produce at the minimum support price amid demonstrations by farmers and their mass mobilization in the nation’s capital. In response to follow-up inquiries regarding the MSP for farmers, he provided the guarantee during Question Hour.
On the same day that the announcement was made, farmers began marching to Delhi with a list of demands, including support for MSP from the government.
Chouhan told the house, “I want to assure the House through you that all produce of farmers will be purchased at minimum support price. This is the Modi government and the guarantee to fulfil Modi’s guarantee. When our friends from the other side were in power, they had said on record that they cannot accept the MS Swaminathan Commission recommendations, especially on giving 50 percent more than the cost of produce. I have the record”.
To support his assertion, he referenced former agriculture ministers Sharad Pawar and K V Thomas as well as former state agriculture minister Kantilal Bhuria.
Following his comments, Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar requested that Chouhan put the supporting documentation on file, to which he complied.
Chouhan claimed, “They have never honoured the farmers and never gave a serious consideration to farmers’ demands for remunerative prices. I want to assure the house through you that since 2019 Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to calculate the minimum support price by giving 50 per cent profit on cost of production to farmers”. Additionally, he asserted that the Modi administration has been paying farmers fair prices, claiming that for the previous three years, the price of soy, wheat, jowar, and paddy has been 50% higher than the cost of production.
He also mentioned measures like changing export pricing and tariffs whenever commodities prices drop.
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