Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Thursday asked the Centre to start the process of review of criteria for fixation of farm prices in the country to ensure that agriculture ceased to be an unprofitable profession and farmers got adequate reward for their sacrifices for national food security.
Badal, commenting on Rs50 per quintal hike in MSP for paddy, said that the new MSP must measure up to the massive hike witnessed in the cost of farm produce during the UPA regime.
He advocated implementation of recommendations of renowned farm economist Dr MS Swaminathan on fixation of MSP of farm produce. “These recommendations favour 50 per cent profit over the total cost of production incurred by the farmer for any crop. And both the BJP and the SAD support this formula,” he said.
Badal said that remunerative prices for farm produce were the only way to ensure food security, and added that MSP of farm produce must be linked to cost of inputs plus profit.
The Chief Minister added that he also fully understood that the NDA Government had to grapple with the “most difficult legacy of UPA’s 10 years of fiscal mismanagement and neglect”.
“The constraints imposed on the present Union Government by the poor fiscal legacy it has inherited from the UPA had resulted in pathetic state of national finances in which the country found itself now. Drastic steps are needed to revamp the economy,” he added.