Govt working on no interest warehousing for farmers, says Chouhan

He said the agriculture ministry has approached the Finance Minister to enable farmers to get paid on the basis of warehouse receipts

Ahead of the Union Budget, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday said the government was trying to ensure that farmers do not have to pay any interest to keep produce in a warehouse for two-three months.

 

Chouhan said the agriculture ministry approached Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to allow farmers to get paid on the basis of warehouse receipts. The government was also trying to lower the price gap between what consumers pay and what producers get, he said.

 

The Centre recently launched a Credit Guarantee Scheme for Electronic-Negotiable Warehouse Receipt (e-NWR) based Pledge Financing (CGS-NPF) which provides a corpus of Rs 1,000 crore for post-harvest finance. This can be availed by farmers against electronic negotiable warehouse receipts (e-NWRs) after depositing commodities in Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA) accredited warehouses.

 

While addressing a public meeting in Chhattisgarh today, Chouhan said the transport cost for fruits and vegetables was very high.

 

“Therefore, we have decided that if fruits and vegetables are taken through NAFED, we will bear the transportation cost,” he said.

 

He said farmers and farmer organisations should prepare for processing units and that there would be subsidies for this too.

 

“If a farmer works hard, he should be respected. I assure you that under Modi ji’s leadership, we will leave no stone unturned in doubling the farmer’s income,” Chouhan said.

 

Chouhan said the government has a six-point programme for development of agriculture. It includes increasing production, for which ICAR has been continuously doing research.

 

“Recently, a variety of rice has been developed which will require 20 per cent less water. It does not require transplantation. It can be sown just like wheat. If farmers get good seeds, we can become the food basket of the world,” Chouhan said.