Centre still awaiting names from farmers' unions for setting up panel on MSP: Tomar

New Delhi: With Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar claiming that the Centre is still awaiting the names of members from farmers' unions for setting up a panel on minimum support price (MSP), it seems the government is not in a hurry to form the panel on MSP.

The statement of Tomar has also contradicted its own claim made in the Rajya Sabha last month when the Union Agriculture Minister had said in a written reply that the government was in the process of forming a committee on MSP.

Notably, while announcing the repeal of three contentious farm laws in November last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised that a committee would be set up to make the MSP system more effective and transparent as well as suggest ways to promote zero budgeting based-agriculture.

"We had asked for 2-3 members' names from farmers' unions for the committee on MSP. We have not yet received any names," Tomar told reporters on the sidelines of an event annual conference of vice-chancellors of state agricultural universities & directors of ICAR Institutes – 2022, which was organised by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.

Asserting that there has been no delay in setting up the committee, the minister said that the panel on MSP will be formed soon after the Centre gets the names of 2-3 members who will represent farmers' unions. The panel will have representatives of the central government, state governments, farmers, agricultural scientists, and agricultural economists.

While stressing providing quality education to farmers to help them withstand the recent competitive world, Tomar said, "The government has the vision to reduce the farmers' expenditure and provide them with the prompt results."