Parliamentary panel calls for ‘comprehensive justice’ for farmers, asks govt to consider region-wise MSP

NEW DELHI: A parliamentary panel has appreciated the government’s decision to fix minimum support price (MSP) of 22 crops at minimum one-and-a-half times of production cost but suggested the government to consider its earlier recommendations so that the farmers can get “comprehensive justice”.

Those recommendations include need of region-wise MSP, broad-basing of data used by the Commission for Agricultural Cost and Prices (CACP) to fix support price and enhancement of farmers’ representation in this body.

“The committee is of view that issue of fixation of MSP needs a comprehensive reorientation in order to ensure remunerative prices of agriculture produce”, said the parliamentary standing committee on agriculture, headed by BJP Lok Sabha MP HukmdevNarayan Yadav and comprised of members from all major political parties.

The committee, in its report tabled in the Parliament on Tuesday, appeared to be fine with the A2+FL (actual paid out cost plus imputed value of unpaid family labour) formula for calculating cost of production for fixing MSP. It has, however, flagged demand from various stakeholders, including farmers and eminent scientist M S Swaminathan, to fix MSP using C2 formula which takes into account rental value of owned land and interest on fixed capital apart from A2+FL.

Instead of getting much into debate over the cost formula, the committee in its recommendations preferred government to strengthen procurement mechanism and suggested it to adopt liberal financing pattern for implementation of the proposed Market Assurance Scheme (MAS) and Price Deficiency Procurement Scheme (PDPS) during early years.

“The committee is of the view that fixing of MSP without proper arrangements for procurement of agriculture produce won’t solve the plight of farmers in the country”, said the panel in its report on 2018-19 demands for grants.

It emphasised that the state level procurement agencies require “financial and professional support” to be able to take the task of procurement of produce from farmers at MSP and ensuring its disposal.

The panel even asked the NITI Aayog to incorporate suitable measures in the MAS and PDPS “to exclude brokers” during the implementation. The Aayog is expected to finalise the mechanism in consultation with states as early as possible.

The committee also reviewed various proposals of the dairy and livestock sector and expressed its concerns over use of antibiotics in rearing chicken. It asked the government to create awareness among stakeholders about restricted use of antibiotics in poultry because it can have adverse effect on human health. It even pitched for expediting research on “use of medicinal herbs” as an alternative to antibiotics.

Observing dwindling performance of the Delhi Milk Scheme (DMS), the committee suggested upgradation and renovation of DMS plant and recommended functional autonomy to it on the lines of other commercial dairies.