As soon as the government receives the names of representatives from the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said in the Rajya Sabha on Friday that the government would form a committee on minimum support price (MSP) as promised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in November 2021. (SKM).
During Query Hour, Mr. Tomar responded to a question from M. Shanmugam of the DMK by saying that the government was committed to forming the committee. The Prime Minister made the commitment while announcing the repeal of three farm legislation that had been the subject of farmers’ protests for more than a year.
Mr. Tomar stated that the Prime Minister has stated that a committee on organic farming, crop diversification, and making MSPs more transparent will be constituted. The administration was investigating the situation.
“We’ve requested names from the Samyukt Kisan Morcha.” With them, discussions are ongoing. The committee will be constituted as soon as the names are received,” Mr. Tomar said, referring to the umbrella organization of farmers’ unions that had criticized the farm regulations.
Government: The problem with parboiled rice
Earlier in Question Period, Consumer, Food, and Public Distribution Minister Piyush Goyal chastised state administrations for “misleading” farmers over parboiled rice purchases. In response to a query from K. Keshava Rao of Telangana Rashtra Samithi, Mr. Goyal restated the Centre’s position that states might acquire parboiled rice for internal distribution, but the Centre would not. The government had notified the states that it would be unable to obtain parboiled rice because there was still four or five years’ worth of stock in the store and no further demand.
He pointed out that the Telangana administration had “put it in writing” to the Centre that they would supply raw rice rather than parboiled rice. There was an attempt to mislead farmers by “certain MPs and several State governments.” Mr. Rao stated that the rules and legislation in question state that the government will procure paddy, not rice, in various forms.