MPs want implementation of Swaminathan panel report on farmers

The government should expeditiously implement recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission on farm sector and set up a national commission on farmers to overcome the crisis facing them, members said in Lok Sabha.
These suggestions were made during a discussion on a private member's resolution moved by Raju Shetti (Swabhimani Paksha) on ending crisis in the farm sector.
Initiating the discussion, Shetti suggested that government should review and revise the procedure for computing the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of agriculture produce including wheat and paddy.
The process of computing support prices was skewed and against the interest of farmers, he said, adding government should immediately announce enhanced MSPs.

He said all efforts were needed to made farming a remunerative proposition as no market in the world could feed 121 crore people in the country.
"Government should immediately implement recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission and take effective steps to discourage flow of people from Bharat (villages) to India (urban centres)," he said.
The Commission, which submitted its report in 2006, had recommended, among other things, that the MSP should be at least 50 per cent more than the weighted average cost of production.
Shetti regretted that the previous UPA government had not done anything to improve the plight of farmers and pointed out that despite its much-touted loan waiver scheme, over 70,000 farmers had committed suicide during 2008-12.