FM urged to replace minimum support price

Agriculture experts on Tuesday asked Finance Minister P Chidambaram to consider replacing the system of Minimum Support Price with Remunerative Prices and Participatory Price Insurance Scheme and to provide capital subsidy to build water storage pits in the forthcoming budget.

In a two-hour long pre-budget meeting with Chidambaram, the representatives of the farm sector also said that National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme must provide more that 100 days' employment and should be made universal and not just confined to BPL families.

In this regard, they suggested devising a 'self-selection scheme' by an appropriate choice of the wage rate.

The meeting, the first of the pre-budget meetings that Chidambaram is holding, was attended by eminent agricultural economist and researchers, representatives of cooperative banks and agricultural commodities organisations.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, NAFED chairman Ajit Kumar Singh said he had urged Finance Minister to provide a Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) revolving fund by Food Corporation of India for expediting payment for purchases of oilseeds and pulses from growers.

This, he said, would encourage cultivation of oilseeds and pulses and contribute to government's efforts to diversify the cropping pattern.

NABARD chairperson Ranjana Kumar said Finance Minister gave a patient hearing to the views of the agriculturists. She desired a cut in interest rates on farm lending by cooperative banks.