PM, Union Agri Minister must hold discussion with farmers across country: Farmer activist P Chengal Reddy

Amidst the ongoing farmer protests against the new agricultural sector laws, farmers' activist and chief advisor of Consortium of Indian Farmers Association, P Chengal Reddy on Monday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar to hold discussions with farmers across the country before taking further decisions.

While talking to , Reddy said that reforms are essential, because "our productivity is low, the processing is low, value realization is low and we have a lot of rain-fed farming. Since the 1990 reforms, the industry and service sector is growing around ten per cent. But, agriculture exceeded one or two per cent, because there are no technologies and mostly you need investments."

"Today, except for pulses and oil seeds we have huge stock of rice, wheat, vegetables, fruits, and spices. We are not able to do any value addition to export them, the reason is no marketing," he added.

Reddy said that farmers from different states have different opinions on the new agricultural laws.

"We want Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Agricultural Minister Narendra Singh Tomar to consult us also, farmers from different states and region have different opinions. They cannot have talks with only one set of people protesting from Punjab. State Government must not interfere in the process and use government machinery to participate in solving farmers' issue. We demand the Prime Minister and Union Agricultural Minister to discuss farmers across the country, before taking any decision."

The next round of talks between the Centre and farmers' representatives will take place on December 9.

Thousands of farmers have been protesting on different borders of the national capital since November 26 against the three newly enacted farm laws--Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

( With inputs from ANI )

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