RANCHI:
Agriculture sector has got attention of government which was evident from the increased allocation and decision to give minimum support price to the farmers calculated at the rate of one and half times that of
input cost.
Agriculture experts in the state are however happy about the announcements for converting
rural haats to
agriculture market and proposal for setting up 42 food processing units in the country.
Media incharge at
Birsa Agriculture University,
Pankaj Vatsal said that calculating minimum support price on the basis of input cost was impractical and would not be of much benefit to the farmers. "Input cost differs from farmer to farmer in the state. While few have their own land there are farmers who pay rent for the land where they cultivate. There are families working on the plot and some farmers engage labourers on wage making it difficult to have a generic input cost," he said. The farmers in Jharkhand are often seen going for distress sell in the village haats which can be addressed in case the agriculture market is developed. "Every year during season tomato prices fall considerably and farmers often have to throw them. Agriculture market and food processing units, even if in neighbouring states can help the farmers obtain a good price for their produce," he said.
Chief minister
Raghubar Das also expressed hope that it would be easy for the state government to double farmers income after obtaining support from the Centre. "There is focus on rural connectivity and when the villages would have proper transport facility it would be easy for the farmers to take their produce to nearest market," he said.
