On Monday, one day before the scheduled meeting with protesting farmers' unions, Minister of Agriculture Narendra Singh Tomar praised the farm reforms saying that these reforms would go a long way in raising farmers' living standards.
The government's three laws would release farmers from all needless legal constraints and help them achieve optimum value for their products. It would attract farmers to grow high-value crops. Impediments are expected to come in the way if any legislation is implemented,' Tomar said that while attending a conference on farm reforms.
He stated “after lengthy consultations with experts and professionals, the farm laws were implemented. Such changes have been way overdue. Yet the former government was unable to gather the confidence to enforce these rules. Under the guidance of PM Modi, our government brought a transformation in the agricultural sector,' he said.
Quashing speculation that the minimum system support price (MSP) would be scrapped, Tomar said that since the BJP rose to power in 2014, the government has improved the MSP system. The MSP scheme will still operate in the future. We have also included pulses and oilseeds in the procurement of MSP. By following the propositions of the Swaminathan Committee, we have raised the MSP on 23 crops,” he said.
Tomar even said the agricultural sector remains imbalanced even though the nation has established excess production of food grains. The position of small - scale farmers is distinctive from that of major farmers. “We have worked extensively to connect small scale farmers with subsidies, MSP, technology and market structures issued by the government in order to increase their earnings," he added.
In the current fiscal year, the funding to support the agriculture budget is increased by 5 times from rupees 27,000 crore in 2013-14 to rupees 1.34 lakh crore. We also allocated rupees 1 lakh crore for the construction of farm infrastructure, which will help to draw rural sector investment. The direct flow of funds under the PM KISAN scheme would make farm producers self-dependent and they have been aided by incremental disbursement of Rs 1.57 lakh crore by KIsan Credit Cards to cover costs of production, Tomar said.
