Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
* ASKS AGRICULTURE DEPARTMENT TO TAKE UP THIS ISSUE WITH CACP
Chandigarh, May 31- Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal today approved the recommendations of the State Agricultural department asking the Centre to fix the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for the crops of Rabi season 2015-16 in accordance with the prevalent cost of the inputs in market.
Disclosing this here a spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s Office said that Mr. Badal has cleared the file to this effect this morning, asking the Director agriculture to shot a letter to the Member Secretary of Commission for Agriculture Costs and Prices (CACP) for streamlining the policy regarding the marketing of Rabi crops in year 2015-16. The spokesperson further pointed out that state government has recommended an increase in prices of such crops in proportion to the increase in their input costs. Keeping in view the steep hike in the input costs of agricultural commodities the need of hour was to fix the prices of the Rabi crops accordingly.
The spokesperson pointed out that in order to fix the estimated cost of the Wheat crop for the year 2015-16 the market price of the various inputs like seeds, fertilizers, insecticides, pesticides, irrigation and labour have been kept in mind along with various other factors including the marketing expenditure and weather risks. Emphasizing on the need for an increase in MSP of wheat crop for the next year, the spokesperson said that keeping in view all these factors the MSP of the wheat must be fixed at Rs. 1950 per quintal. In the same manner the Government of India (GoI) must fix the MSP of other crops like Barley, Gram and Mustard at Rs. 1640, Rs. 3800 and Rs. 3600 per quintal respectively.
The Agriculture Department had proposed the hike in MSP after determining the input costs of the Rabi crops for which agricultural experts had thoroughly analyzed the current situation, the spokesperson added.
