Agriculture Ministry announces committee to make MSP effective; No nomination yet from Samyukt Kisan Morcha
29 July 2022, New Delhi: PM Modi repealed the three farms laws last year. In addition, he made an announcement to make a committee to work on making MSP more effective as per the demand of the protesting farmers. The committee was said to comprise of representatives from the Central Government, State Government, farmer representatives, agronomists and agricultural economists.
In a recent notification released by Ms. Shubha Thakur, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, the objective of the committee and list of members of the committee has been announced.
The committee is constituted to promote Zero budget based farming, to change crop pattern keeping in mind the changing needs of the country, and to make MSP more effective and transparent.
The Chairman of the committee will be Mr. Sanjay Agrawal, Former Agriculture Secretary. Mr. Ramesh Chand will be a member to the commitee from NITI Aayog (Agriculture).
Two agricultural economists in the committee are Dr. C.S.C. Shekhar, Indian Institute of Economic Development and Dr. Sukhpal Singh, IIM, Ahmedabad.
National award winning farmer Mr Bharat Bhushan Tyagi will be part of the committee.
Sanyukta Kisan Morcha, the leading farmer reporesentative body during the faremer protest is yet to nominate three members for the committee for which names are awaited. The farmer body has sought clarification from the government regaring the objective of the committee for which they havent received a response. They will nomitate 3 members once they receive a response from the government.
Members from other farmer organizations in the committee are Mr. Gunwant Patil, Mr. Krishnaveer Choudhary, Mr. Pramod Kumar Choudhary, Mr. Guni Prakash and Mr. Sayyed Pasha Patel.
Mr. Dilip Sanghani, Chairman, IFFCO and Mr. Binod Anand, General Secretary, CNRI will be representative of farmers’ cooperative/group. Mr. Naveen P. Singh has been named for the committee from the Commission for Agricultural Costs & Prices (CACP)
Senior Member of Agricultural Universities/Institutions in the committee are Dr. P. Chandrashekhar, Director General, National Institute of Agricultural Extension (MANAGE), Dr. J.P. Sharma, Vice Chancellor, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Jammu and Dr. Pradeep Kumar Bisen, Vice Chancellor, Jawaharlal Nehru Agricultural University, Jabalpur
Representative of the Government of India in the committee are Secretary, Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research and Education and Director General (ICAR), Secretary, Department of Food and Public Distribution and Secretary, Ministry of Cooperation, Secretary, Ministry of Textiles.
Representatives of State Governments in the committee are Additional Chief Secretary/Principal Secretary/Commissioner Agriculture, Karnataka, Additional Chief Secretary/Principal Secretary/Commissioner Agriculture, Andhra Pradesh, Additional Chief Secretary/Principal Secretary/Commissioner Agriculture, Sikkim and Additional Chief Secretary/Principal Secretary/Commissioner Agriculture, Odisha.
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