Farmers' panel suggestion of 2004 implemented by Modi govt in 4 yrs

New Delhi: Blaming the UPA government for not implementing the recommendations of National Farmers Commission that was constituted in February 2004, Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said that it's the NDA government, which is led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, implemented most of the suggestions of the commission to improve farmers' net income.

"Most of the recommendations had been left in the cold storage during the UPA regime, which is enough to believe that UPA government had never bothered to improve the financial conditions of poor farmers," Singh said.

Hailing the farmer-friendly initiatives taken by PM Modi, the Union Minister said, "As soon as Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government came to power, an inter-ministerial committee was set up to examine steps taken to improve the financial status of farmers. It was on the result of the suggestions the inter-ministerial panel that the NDA government took several steps to empower farmers."

The decisions such as introduction of model Agricultural Land Leasing Act, 2016 to states, launch of electronic national agricultural market scheme (e-NAM), revamped crop insurance scheme based on weather, etc were taken by the Modi government to better the socio-economic conditions of farmers, the minister has said.

Notably, the government led by PM Modi that announced to increase the MSP by 1.5 times of production cost in the Union Budget 2018-19.

"The revised MSP is applicable not only for rabi crops, though it would be availed on kharif crops too," the minister said, adding that in the first four years prior to Modi government coming into power, only 16 lakh MT of pulses, oilseeds and cotton crops were procured, while 62 lakh MT of grains have already been procured till December 31, 2017, which is 3-4 times more.

"The UPA government has failed on every front when it comes to the welfare of farmers as the ousted UPA government was sitting on the recommendations of the commission instead of implementing it to address farmers' pertinent issues," the minister said.

An amount of Rs 2,000 crore has been proposed through NABARD for the development of 22,000 rural agricultural markets in the country.

"The recommendation of the commission, which was given to the then UPA government in 2004, has been implemented by the Modi government in just four years. It shows the apathy of UPA government towards farmers," Singh said.