Members of Rajya Sabha, cutting across party lines, today pitched for providing fertilizers to farmers at reasonable prices.
The views were expressed during a debate on a Private Member's Bill which sought fixing of maximum retail price of all fertilisers by the central government.
Moving the bill, Vivek Gupta (TMC) made some suggestions including providing fertilisers to farmers through public distribution system.
Supporting the bill, Vijila Sathyanath (AIADMK) said the main objective is to provide fertilisers at reasonable prices.
Bhalchandra Mungekar(INC) also supported the proposed move while Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa (SAD) suggested that a mechanism may be possible to provide subsidies for fertilisers directly to farmers through the 'Jan Dhan yojana'.
D Bandopadhyay (TMC) emphasised the need to encourage bio-fertilisers.
C P Narayanan (CPI-M) said a lot of encouragement was being provided to those in business and service sectors and added that the share of agriculture in GDP has come down.
The discussion on the bill remained inconclusive.
