Regional parties, BJP come together demanding pro-farmer policies

MOHALI: Cutting across party lines, several chief ministers and politicians today pitched for evolving a pro-farmer policy with emphasis on making farming a profitable venture by raising MSP, a separate budget for agriculture sector and cheap credit to farmers.

Leaders of SAD, BJP, Janta Dal (United), Trinamool Congress, Telugu Desam Party and Samajwadi Party even criticised the Centre for not addressing critical issues of farming community, saying that farmers were left on their own despite feeding the nation.

However, no representative from Congress-led states participated in the event.

At the initiative of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, a first ever four-day Progressive Punjab Agriculture Summit (PPAS) kicked off today here.

Addressing the gathering, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said farmers across the country have been suffering as they have not been getting remunerative Minimum Support Price for their crops and input like fertiliser prices have been on rise which had made the farming a non-profitable venture.

"Farmers cannot sustain themselves with the current MSP announced by the Centre for different crops. Moreover, cost of input like fertilisers has been increasing because the Centre has regulated its prices which has added to the input cost," Chouhan said.

"After Independence, we could not find out solutions for farmers' problems," he said adding that a policy should be drafted, in consultation with the farmers, to make this profession viable as well as profitable.

Citing an example of his state, he said MP government is giving Rs 150 per quintal as bonus over and above the MSP for wheat, rice and maize. He also took a dig at the Centre, saying Centre allowed import of cotton when his state was having surplus output of cotton.

He also described the unit set for agriculture insurance against damage caused to crops because of national calamity as "flawed".