Empowering farmers,curbing price rise top priorities: Singh

New Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh today said his key priorities would be empowering farmers and controlling prices of agri-commodities.

Singh, who has won the 2014 Lok Sabha election from Purvi Champaran constituency in Bihar, said he will assume charge tomorrow.

"Our main priority will be to empower farmers of the country," Singh told reporters.

The new minister said that his focus would be to control price rise in agri-products.

An unsung worker of Jan Sangh and the BJP all his life, Singh finally got his reward for his years of toil when he found a berth in the Narendra Modi government.

Singh (64) started his career from Motihari in Bihar as an ABVP Nagar Pramukh way back in 1967.

Modi had given the first inkling of Singh likely to play a big role in the BJP-led NDA government by praising him profusely at an election meeting in Motihari.

"Radha Mohan Singh is my old friend. We have worked together for a very long time," Modi had said at the meeting.

A five-term MP from Motihari since 1989, Singh has been known as an organisational man all his political life and has been credited by peers and contemporaries in the BJP for assiduously contributing to the party's growth in Bihar in the capacity of state unit chief from 2006 to 2009.

Recognising his efforts, the BJP leadership put more responsibilities on his shoulders by making him the party's Kisan Morcha Vice-President and in-charge of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarkhand units.

Singh's parliamentary career has been no less illustrious as he ably discharged his duties as a member of the Consultative Committee of the Communication Ministry and as a member of the Standing Committee on Industry and Mines during his first term as a Lok Sabha MP between 1989-1991.

He also served as member of various committees in several ministries such as Railways, Communications, Petroleum and Natural Gas, Surface Transport and External Affairs during subsequent stints as MP.