New Delhi: The government on Tuesday told Lok Sabha that the formation of a committee to make Minimum Support Price (MSP) more effective is "under process". Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar also said the government has no record about withdrawal of cases that were filed against farmers during the agitation across various states as well as about compensation paid to deceased farmers' families.
There were farmer protests at Delhi and a few other places against three controversial farm laws which were eventually withdrawn last year. "As per the changing requirements of the country to change the cropping pattern, to make MSP more effective and transparent, and to encourage natural farming method of agriculture, the process of setting up a committee is under process," Tomar said in a written reply.
When asked whether the government has any details regarding cases filed against farmers during the agitation that have been withdrawn in all states as assured and whether the government has any details of compensation paid to the families of farmers who died during the agitation, Tomar said the ministry "has no record in the matter". On Friday, Tomar told Rajya Sabha that the government was committed to forming a panel on MSP and the Election Commission has said it can be done after the assembly polls are over.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on November 19, while announcing repeal of the three controversial farm laws that had triggered a massive farmer protest at Delhi borders, said the government will set up a committee to make MSP more effective and transparent as well as suggest ways to promote zero budget natural farming. In reply to a separate query, Tomar on Tuesday said the budget allocation for agriculture ministry has increased nearly five-fold under the NDA government to Rs 1,32,513 crore for the next financial year. "There is no proposal to introduce a separate budget for agriculture. However, Government of India provides top most priority to the sector which is the backbone of the Indian economy.
Also Read: Will form committee on MSP after assembly polls: Tomar tells RS
"This is reflected in the fact that budget allocation for the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare is very substantial. It has increased from Rs 27,662.67 crore in 2013-14 to Rs 1,32,513.62 crore in 2022-23, i.e. an absolute increase of 379 per cent," he said. To another query, the minister said Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) introduced from Kharif 2016 season in the country is voluntary for States/UTs as well as farmers. The scheme is available for all States/UTs and all farmers for crops and areas notified by the state government concerned.
"Since inception of the scheme in 2016-17 till 2020-21, against premium of Rs 21,531 crore paid by farmers, claims of Rs 1,04,196 crore have been paid to 901 lakh farmer applications," he added. On PM-KISAN scheme, the minister said the total number of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme transactions that have taken place since its launch till December 2021 is 91,22,94,503 and the number of failed transactions is around 1 per cent.
"The cumulative number of PM-KISAN transactions which has failed since 1st February 2019 till December, 2021 is 91,57,756 out of which 32,05,764 transactions have been successfully re-processed," he said. Various reasons have been identified for the transactions failure under PM-KISAN scheme such as account closed/transferred, account inactive, account holder expired, inactive Aadhaar and technical glitches.
Under PM-KISAN scheme, which came into effect from December 2018, an income support of Rs 6,000 per annum, in 3 equal instalments, is provided to all eligible farmer families directly into their bank accounts through Direct Benefit Transfer mode. The ministry has also commenced the work for creating Agristack for the entire country. This will serve as a foundation to build innovative agri-focused solutions leveraging technologies to contribute effectively towards increasing the income of farmers and improve farm efficiency.
Farmers Database shall be useful for various activities like issuing soil health cards, dissemination of crop advisories to the farmers, precision farming, crop insurance, settlement of compensation claims and grant of agricultural subsidies, Tomar said. At present, the work on Farmers Database is under process with the help of PM-KISAN data. Under PM-KISAN 12,47,65,397 number of farmers have been registered in the country as on February 2.
PTI
