To save farmers from ruin, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Friday demanded Rs 20,000 per acre relief package for distressed potato growers as well as immediate procurement of potatoes for the state welfare schemes.
“The government should give a relief package of Rs 20,000 per acre to potato growers who are experiencing huge losses for the second consecutive year. Alongside, these potatoes could be procured for the mid-day meal scheme and included in the Atta-Dal scheme which would ensure a remunerative price to the crisis-hit farmers,” said SAD leader and the former minister Bikram Singh Majithia.
He said that simultaneously, the government should direct Markfed and Punjab Agro to procure potatoes as it had been doing in the past.
Stating that all these steps needed to be taken immediately without any delay, Majithia said that the Finance Minister Manpreet Badal had announced a Price Stabilisation Fund in the previous assembly session, “but now, when the time had come to pitch in to stabilise potato prices, the government is not lifting a finger”.
Asserting that the State was staring at a farm crisis, Majithia said that potato prices had hit a rock bottom of Rs three per kilogram. “In such a situation, farmers are unable to recover the cost of production which came to between Rs six to Rs eight per kg after adding harvesting and packing costs. “Many farmers are even putting off harvesting of their crop due to this reason”, he added.