Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Saturday said that farmers were in deep crisis and were not getting the right price for their produce, putting a question mark over their future.
He was speaking at “Kisan Mahapanchayat” at New Grain Market here on Saturday as part of a series of similar meetings held across the State over the past one month in the wake of the farmer killings in Madhya Pradesh to highlight the plight of the farming community in Haryana.
Mr. Hooda has raised 15 demands with the Haryana government, including loan waiver for Haryana farmers, implementation of Swaminathan Commission report, fixing minimum support price for poplar, increase in support price for sugarcane commensurate with sugar price and adequate power supply in the villages.
Mr. Hooda said farmers were forced to sell their produce at throwaway prices. “The farmers sold potatoes for as low as nine paisa per kg in Kurukshetra and were forced to feed tomatoes to their cattle as they did not get the right price,” he said.
The former CM said both the farmers and the consumers had suffered as the fall in prices of agricultural products had not reflected in the prices of the end-products.
He said the prices of wheat, potatoes and tomatoes had nose-dived, but there was no change in the prices of flour, chips and the sauce, adding that the farmer was silent but not dumb.
