In a bid to alleviate the woes of the State’s distressed farmers, the Punjab government has sought a hike in the Minimum Support Price (MSP) on various crops for Rabi 2019-20, from the Central government.
The Punjab Agriculture Department has come out with a detailed proposal for a hike in the MSP of wheat crop from ₹1,840 per quintal in 2018-19 to ₹2,710 in 2019-20, and barley from ₹1,440 to ₹1,974 per quintal.
“The proposal, submitted to the Commission for Agriculture Costs and Prices (CACP), also seeks hike in the MSP of gram from the earlier ₹4,620 to ₹5,631 per quintal, and of rapeseed and mustard from ₹4,200 to ₹5,384 per quintal,” an official statement said on Wednesday.
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, said the hike was necessary for promoting crops like barley, gram, rapeseed and mustard in the State, to give a much needed push for crop diversification that would help arrest the depleting groundwater table in Punjab.
“While the State government had taken all possible steps to ease the problems of the farmers, including farm debt waiver, the Centre’s intervention was needed to support these measures, especially in the matter of MSP which was under its control,” he said.
The Chief Minister also reiterated his demand for in toto implementation of the M.S. Swaminathan Commission report, to ensure the much-needed improvement in the agriculture system and better remuneration for the farmers.