Chandigarh: There is great news for the farmers of Haryana. The state government has given a guarantee of purchasing 24 crops of the farmers at minimum support price (MSP). Government agencies which are already purchasing 14 crops at MSP will purchase 10 more crops at MSP. Dr Raja Shekhar Vundru, Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department has issued a notification for purchasing 24 crops at MSP. Farmers’ protests are continuing at Shambhu Border near Ambala and Khanauri Border near Jind adjoining the Punjab border in Haryana. Punjab farmers are protesting at the border with the demand of marching to Delhi to get the guarantee of minimum support price MSP of crops from the central government.
The decision to purchase crops on MSP which was taken in the cabinet meeting held under the chairmanship of Haryana Chief Minister NayabSingh on August 5, just before the announcement of assembly elections, can now be implemented after the issuance of the notification. These crops included in MSP are ragi, soybean, nigerseed, safflower, barley, maize, sorghum, jute, copra, summer moong, paddy, bajra, kharif moong, urad, tur, sesame, cotton, groundnut, wheat, mustard, gram, lentil, sunflower and sugarcane. On behalf of the Central Government, Food Corporation of India (FCI), Cotton Corporation of India (CCI), Jute Corporation of India (JCI), Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC), National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED), National Cooperative Consumer Federation of India (NCCF) purchase various crops.
The special thing is that crops like ragi, soybean, niger seed, safflower, jute and copra are not sown in Haryana, yet the state government has included them in the listed crops. The price of maize is usually higher than the MSP. However, the state government purchased maize in 2018-19, 2020-21 and 2021-22.
Saini said Government agencies never purchased barley, as the market price is usually higher than the prescribed MSP. Similarly, the prices of tur, urd, sesame, and jowar also remain higher than the MSP. Crops will be purchased at MSP only from farmers registered on the ‘Meri Fasal Mera Byora’ portal. Chief Minister Saini reiterated that all the crops of farmers in Haryana are being purchased at MSP. The Aam Aadmi Party government of Punjab and the governments of Congress-ruled states should also take a decision to purchase crops at MSP to empower the farmers. He said especially the farmers of Punjab are facing this problem. Therefore, the Punjab government should announce that it will buy the produce of the farmers at MSP.
Information reveals that farmers from Punjab are protesting with traffic blocks on the highway for the past several months already causing huge financial loss to the government, NHAI as collection at Toll Plaza, railways, road transports and people in trade and industry in Northern states, besides inconvenience to the travelling passengers.
