Nirmesh Singh
New Delhi; 23 March 2022
At the time when farmer organizations have announced the campaign for MSP guarantee law, Government has said that it had not yet considered extending any separate Minimum Support Price (MSP) for food grains produced under natural farming.
Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar gave this information while replying to a parliamentary question from Guman Singh Damor, BJP Lok Sabha MP from Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday.
Minister also informed, Government is promoting Natural Farming through Bhartiya Prakritik Krishi Padhati (BPKP) as a sub scheme of Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) for the promotion of traditional indigenous practices and an area of 4.09 lakh hectare has been covered under natural farming in 8 States across the country.
Damor had asked whether the Government had announced the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for food grains produced under natural farming and if it has not, when the government would take steps in this regard.
A farmer from Kasganj district in Uttar Pradesh, Sudhir Kumar said, as the crop yield is much low in natural farming, there should be separate MSP for natural farming crops otherwise farmers will be reluctant to adopt it.
However, there is an assistance for natural farming given under Bhartiya Prakritik Krishi Padhati (BPKP) and it is Rs 12, 200 per hectare only for a period of three years which according to some experts is much less as compared to the assistance for farmers for organic farming which is Rs around Rs 32000 per hectare for three years.
Recently, Sri Lanka had to shelve its plan to become the world’s first 100 percent organic country after it suffered a food crisis by the ban on chemical fertilisers.
The reply from the Minister also showed that Andhra Pradesh had the largest area (1 Lakh ha) under natural farming followed by Madhya Pradesh (99000 ha), Chhattisgarh (85000 ha), Kerala (84000 ha), Odisha (24000 ha), Himachal Pradesh (12000 ha), Jharkhand (3400 ha) and Tamil Nadu (2000 ha).
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