Delhi govt organises meeting to implement MSP on Swaminathan Committee Report's recommendations: Rai

The Delhi government organised a meeting to devise a mechanism to implement the minimum support price on the recommendations of the Swaminathan Committee Report, Employment minister Gopal Rai said Tuesday.

Higher wages, input costs, transport charges and cost of other allied services peculiar to Delhi will be factored, while determining the MSP, Rai said.

The proposed MSP with 50 per cent margin at the cost of production is Rs 2,616 per quintal for wheat and Rs 2,667 quintal for paddy.

It is likely to incur an additional liability of Rs 96.38 crore, if implemented, Rai told reporters after an Agriculture Conference on implementing the recommendations of the "M S Swaminathan Committee Report on Farmers' Welfare" in Delhi.

"Around 20,000 kisan families in Delhi will be benefitted from this scheme," he said.

Further consultations will be done through Kisan Jansunwai, suggestions from the general public and a committee comprising of various stakeholders.

The Delhi government organised a meeting to devise a mechanism to implement minimum support price on the recommendations of the Swaminathan Committee Report.

The conference explored a mechanism to calculate and implement a separate minimum support price (MSP) for farmers in Delhi based a reasonably weighted cost of production.

The Delhi government acknowledged higher cost of production in the farming sector due to higher wages, input costs, transport charges and cost of other allied services in Delhi, Rai said.

The government re-calculated the cost of production of wheat at Rs 1,744 per quintal and paddy at Rs 1,778 per quintal. The proposed MSP with 50 per cent margin at the cost of production is Rs 2,616 per quintal and Rs 2,667 quintal for wheat and paddy respectively.

In the conference, the representatives of the Directorate of Agriculture of Government of Telangana made a presentation on the innovative and technology driven 'Agriculture Investment Support Scheme (Raythu Bandhu)'.

The feasibility of replicating ideas from the Raythu Bandhu scheme, which is primarily aimed to give basic support to farmers, was discussed in the conference.

Later, the members of the committee constituted for drafting the Agricultural Policy in Delhi, farmers' representatives, agriculture scientists from IARI and officers of the Agriculture Departments of the Delhi government and Telangana interacted on various issues related to agriculture.

In its 2006 report, the National Commission on Farmers' chairman M S Swaminathan suggested the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) to fix MSP at least 50 per cent more than the weighted average cost of production.

This recommendation was not incorporated in the National Policy for Farmers 2007.