BHUBANESWAR: Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday attacked the Congress and other political parties for misleading farmers on the new farm laws. Pradhan said the reforms will pave the way for the country to become an agricultural powerhouse. “Some people in the country who have a history of exploiting farmers continue to want to do so by spreading false information on the agrarian reforms,” he stated.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has always worked for empowering farmers right from sowing to selling and taking policy initiatives to address issues of farm credit, providing higher MSPs or providing record budgetary allocations, the Union Minister asserted and said that the minimum support price (MSP) based procurement of agriculture produce from farmers will continue like before.
Calling the bluff of the Opposition on MSP, Pradhan said the farmers benefited the most during the NDA Government. Despite the misinformation, MSP on paddy and wheat has increased by 150 per cent and 135 per cent respectively from 2014-15 onwards. The support price of oilseeds and pulses have also witnessed unprecedented growth as the Prime Minister is committed to ensure better prices to farmers. The Centre had procured 14.26 million tonnes of paddy under price support system from 2019-10 to 2013-14 with a net value of `13,763 crore. The paddy procurement in the last six years was about 22.86 million tonnes involving a cost of `36,148 crore.
Farmer producing pulses were exploited by private traders in the absence of any support price during the second term of the UPA Government at Centre. The NDA Government has procured pulses of 20,272.33 tonnes from 20o 2020-21 (till August) with a net value of `96.24 crore.Pradhan said that the farm laws will benefit farmers and give them the freedom to market their produce. The legislations will also help them increase their production along with enhancing the production-storage-marketing system. Allaying fears that big corporates will grab farm land under contract farming, he said farmers will benefit the most under the system. He further clarified that the local market committees are going to stay but the farmers will have the choice to sell their produce in whichever market they like.