CPA for continuing food subsidies

The agriculture meet of Commonwealth Parliamentary Association in Chandigarh on Thursday supported continuance of subsidies on food and agricultural inputs besides employment guarantee programmes to tackle the challenge of increasing rural poverty in the world.

The agricultural economists collectively gave a call to tackle rural poverty by aggressively promoting employment generating schemes and tackling the problems of small farmers on the third session on the second day of the three-day meet.

In his presentation, P S Birthal from National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research, New Delhi, said small size farm holdings were bane of poverty with 84 per cent of farmers of India having a farm holding less than 1.3 hectares.