BENGALURU: Karnataka Agriculture Price Commission on Friday suggested that declared Minimum Support Price (MSP) should be considered as the Reference Price to purchase agriculture produce outside Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) yards. After the recent amendment to the APMC Act, farmers can sell their produce at the APMC yards or outside at private markets.
Since there is no clarity on the Reference Price for transactions outside the APMC yards, it is better to consider declared Minimum Support Price (MSP) as the Reference Price, the Commission report that was submitted to the Chief Minister, stated and added that the Central government should be asked to include it in the Act.
The commission also asked the state government to recommend to the Centre that the Cultivation Cost (C2) be considered instead of A2+FL (that includes paid-out cost and family labour charge), while declaring MSP for major agricultural crops. Cultivation cost includes the imputed cost of capital and rent on the land to give 50 per cent returns to farmers.
The Commission report also stated that compensation for crop loss due to natural calamities given under National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) is not sufficient and it should be increased to Rs 50,000 per hectare for commercial crops and Rs 1 lakh compensation per hectare for horticulture crops.
Hanumangouda Belagurki, Chairman, Karnataka Agriculture Price Commission said they have recommended adoption of cropping plan to avoid fluctuation in market price, having a tank for each field to manage water efficiently, implement a new project formulated by the Commission in order to distribute rice, jowar and ragi through Public Distribution System (PDS) by purchasing them from farmers at MSP, mobile purchase centres to purchase produce from farmers and establishing Karnataka Horticulture Federation on the lines of Karnataka Milk Federation.
Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa instructed officers to look into the recommendations made by the commission and take necessary action.