The Delhi government will provide the Capital’s farmers a minimum support price (MSP) for their crops based on the recommendations of the M.S. Swaminathan Committee’s report, Development Minister Gopal Rai said on Monday.
A conference with farmers will be held on Tuesday to discuss the implementation of the report, Mr. Rai said at a press conference here. He added that the Delhi government had formed an expert committee on December 4, 2018 to draft an agricultural policy. This committee included a senior scientist of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, farmers and officials of the Agriculture Department.
While the Centre had not implemented the recommendation of giving 50% more than the weighted cost of production, Mr. Rai said the Delhi government would give farmers the MSP based on the Swaminathan report. He added that the expert committee had deliberated on the issue and its report would be discussed with the farmers.
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While agricultural lands in Delhi have shrunk over the years, according to the Economic Survey of Delhi 2017-2018, the total cropped area that year was 34,750 hectares.
Apart from the expert committee, Mr. Rai said the need to calculate the cost of production of wheat, paddy and mustard crop in view of the hike in labour and input costs was felt, and so a departmental committee of officials was formed.
“The committee has worked out the cost of production and is in the process of calculating the average cost of production. To further deliberate on these issues and to arrive at a reasonable weighted cost of production and to suggest separate MSP for farmers of Delhi, the farmers conference has been convened at the Delhi Secretariat on Tuesday,” a government statement said.
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Invitees at conference
Apart from the members of the expert committee and farmers, officers of the Odisha and Telangana governments’ Agricultural Departments have also been invited for the conference.
A final decision on MSP would be taken after consulting all stakeholders, the government said.