Chandigarh, Dec 27 Noting the draft policy of the National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing is silent on the minimum support price (MSP), the most crucial for the state farmers, Punjab on Thursday said it "is minutely studying it and is in no mood to leave any of its clauses unconsidered".
A team of officers and agriculture experts "is even decoding the message in between the lines", a state government statement said.
Punjab Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian, along with Punjab Mandi Board Chairman Harchand Singh Barsat and officers, conducted a brainstorming session with ‘arthiyas’ (commission agents) and rice millers of the state seeking their inputs and suggestions on the draft of the policy.
During the discussions, it came to the fore that the draft policy "is totally silent on the MSP, which is the most crucial for the farmers and the clause regarding promoting the private markets will lead to overshadowing the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) markets", the statement said.
The meeting apprehended that once the APMC markets fall into disarray, it would lead to exploitation of the farmers and traditional traders.
The minister said the rural development fund (RDF) and market development fund (MDF) "are crucial for maintaining state’s extensive agricultural infrastructure, especially market infrastructure and maintaining roads connecting these marketing yards to villages".
He appealed to the ‘arthiyas’ led by Vijay Kalra and Ravinder Singh Cheema and millers led by Tarsem Saini to send their inputs and concerns to the Punjab Mandi Board so that it could be incorporated in the reply to be sent to the Union government.
Minister Khudian reiterated the state government is committed to protecting the interests of the farmers of the state and will do everything possible to safeguard the farmers’ rights.
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