Niti Aayog Member and agriculture policy expert Ramesh Chand said that he is not in favour of debt waivers as this help only a small fraction of farmers. “The biggest problem with loan waiver is that it will benefit only a small fraction of farmers...I am not at all in favour of loan waiver,” Chand said.
The country recently witnessed agitations by farmers in key farm States in support of their demands ranging from farm loan waiver to clearing of dues by sugar mills and higher prices for crops.
He also observed that in poorer States only 10-15 per cent of farmers are benefited from loan waiver as few number of farmers get institutional loans in such States. When asked about implementation of the Swaminathan Commission report, he said Narendra Modi-led NDA Government has implemented most of the recommendations of the Commission.
Chand added the minimum support price (MSP) on various farm produce cannot be raised beyond a point it is not supported by the demand side factors as it would
become too distorted and unaffordable for a large section of the society.
While the Swaminathan committee has suggested the MSP should be fixed on C2 (production cost definition) plus 50 per cent, the Government has adopted A2+FL (actual cost plus the value of family labour) and a 50 per cent increase over A2+FL to provide a reasonable margin to producers.