Modified procurement policy on the anvil: Pawar

NEW DELHI: Rejecting all criticism on the issue of price rise, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Tuesday said a modified procurement policy which seeks to provide market rates to the farmer, is on the anvil.

Food and Agriculture Ministry has proposed the policy in the wake of shortfall in foodgrains procurement in the last season when the APMC Act, which enables farmers to sell their produce directly to private parties came into operation, Pawar told PTI in an interview.

Pawar, who had been under veiled attack from the Congress over the issues of price rise and wheat imports, rebutted all criticism and denied charges that his Ministry was late in announcing minimum support price for wheat leading to a shortfall in procurement and subsequent rising prices.

The NCP supremo, whose party is a major partner in the Congress-led coalition in Maharashtra, insisted that he took lead in preparing the package for Vidarbha, a region marked by suicides of farmers.

He said similar packages for Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, which also witnessed suicides by farmers, would be finalised within a week and would have guidelines on the lines of the Vidarbha pattern.

In the case of Kerala, the issue needed to be looked differently as those affected there were farmers growing plantation crops.

In the interview, Pawar admitted that there was price rise of certain essential commodities but blamed them on the international scenario.

Pawar said that the modified policy envisages procurement at open market rates to give a fair deal to the farmer.

His refrain was that there was need to protect the interest of the domestic producer to ensure food security. He suggested that he was not averse to go in for occasional imports to help the consumer but without affecting the farmer.

Apparently realising that adoption of the modified policy would entail greater subsidy for Public Distribution System, he said that the PDS has been the obligation of the welfare state and therefore the government should provide more funds to ensure the consumer gets foodgrains at fair prices.

The Agriculture Minister expected a response soon from other ministries to the modified policy proposal after which he intended to take it to the Union Cabinet.

Pawar felt that given the experience of last season when farmers sold their produce to private parties which offered a better price, it was necessary that the minimum support price henceforth should be brought into force for market intervention whenever the prices would go below that limit.