To ensure profitable price to farmers, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar lal Khattar has recommended the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of 30 per cent profit over the cost of production of a particular crop to the ensuing Rabi Season 2016-17.The recommendation has been made to the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), Haryana Agriculture Minister OP Dhankar said on Saturday. Rabi crops include wheat, Barley, Gram and Rabi Oilseeds etc.Dhankar said that the State Government has also recommended that going ahead with the recommendations of Dr Swaminathan Commission, the price to be paid to the farmers for various crops for the ensuing Rabi Season should be profitable price (MSP), since it has been the practice that in the open market, not a better price than that of the MSP is fetched by farmers for their food grains in majority.
The Minister stated that it is evident that presently, the agricultural land has considerably squeezed and many farmers have been earning their livelihood from the agriculture sector, taking the land on lease, which thus pushes the cost of production on the higher side. Therefore, the Government has recommended that this rent of the land may also be included in the cost of production of food grains.He said that today agriculture is a capital intensive profession and for various agricultural activities loan from the Banks has also to be raised by the farmers, which attract interest. Hence, the Government has also recommended that this factor may also be included while determining the cost of production, he added.
The Minister said that now, various agricultural activities like ploughing; sowing, cutting, processing etc are undertaken with machinery, whereas in the past, all these activities were undertaken with the labour of the family members of the farmers. Keeping this in view, it has also been recommended that the cost of production to also include the expenditure incurred on the machinery used on all these activities.