Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Sunday urged the Central Government to review the procedure for fixing minimum support price (MSP) by adopting formula of determining rental value of the owned land as per actual market land rent.
Badal has asked the Centre to make the MSP far more remunerative in order to improve viability of farming. Flagging up the methodological issues to determine MSP with the Union Ministry of Agriculture, the Chief Minister pointed out that the provision in the Punjab Security of land Tenures Act, 1953, to limit the land rent up to one-third of value of the produce was made to protect the rights of the tenants and was no more applicable because of abolition of tenancy.
“In the light of this, the State Agriculture Department has already recommended to the Revenue Department to amend the Act to provide for market-based land rent,” he said. Dwelling on the formula to be evolved for fixing the MSP, Badal said that it should be fixed on the basis of C3 cost, that is, it should include not only the paid-out costs and imputed costs (C2) but also the value for managerial input of the farmer.
“Further, the managerial and supervision cost should be taken as 20 per cent of the value of C2,” he added. Badal pleaded that Punjabi farmers should be duly compensated for aptly managing their farms due to their inherent skills, vast expertise and experience of innovative farm practices, which they had acquired from their ancestors over past several generations.
Batting for the implementation of renowned agro scientist Dr MS Swaminathan’s formula, he said that the MSP should include the cost of cultivation plus a margin of 50 per cent as suggested by National Farmers’ Commission chairman, so as to provide for viability of farming and development of new infrastructure required for adoption of improved technologies. Badal also impressed on the Centre to ensure that farmers must continue to get prevailing market prices for their produce when any change was made in the import or export regulations and tariffs to safeguard the interest of consumers.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister has deputed the Financial Commissioner Development (FCD) Suresh Kumar to take up the entire matter for fixation of MSP according to State’s recommendations with National Centre for Agriculture Economics and Policy Research (NCAP) director Dr Ramesh Chand, who is heading a committee set up by the Union Ministry of Agriculture to examine methodological issues in fixing minimum support prices for this purpose.
Taking up another issue, he said that since the farmer and his family work on the farm almost round the clock not only as labour but also as a skilled labour, the value for family labour should be provided at a rate 25 per cent higher than the hired labour. likewise, Badal also pleaded that interest on working capital should be provided for whole of crop season as a major share of short-term credit was generally availed at the time of sowing of crops for arranging inputs such as seeds, diesel or hiring machinery, fertilisers and pesticides etc and repaid after the harvest.