Madhya Pradesh government to conduct study into farmers' needs, plans to introduce new relief schemes

Indore: The Madhya Pradesh government is mulling to introduce a new scheme to facilitate better price of farm produce, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has indicated, ahead of the proposed nationwide stir by cultivators from 1 June. [caption id=“attachment_4028857” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. PTI[/caption] “I am going to sit with farmers to work out the possibility of giving remunerative price per acre of the farm yield,” Chouhan said on Sunday during a programme on farm sector organised in Indore by some media organisations. He did not elaborate on the scheme, but said it would benefit the small farmers who cannot store their produce for a long time. The Rashtriya Kisan Mahasangh, an umbrella body of 110 farmers’ organisations, has called for a 10-day protest from 1 June against the “anti-farmer policies” of the Central government and to put forth their demands, including remunerative price for their produce. The small farmers sell their produce immediately after harvesting it and at times do not get a fair price for it, Chouhan noted. “I am concerned about how to facilitate a better price to farmers for their produce. I want to pay them the full price for their hard work and for this, I have started the ‘Bhavantar Yojna’,” he said. Chouhan said his government provided irrigation facilities in 40 lakh hectares of land in the state in last 12 years, which was earlier confined to 7.5 lakh hectares. “We have charted out a blueprint to expand the irrigation facilities to 80 lakh hectares of land. For this, steps like construction of small dams, interlinking of rivers would be taken, besides launching of other schemes, with an investment of Rs 1.10 lakh crore,” he said. He said sometimes farmers do not get a fair price for their crops due to bumper production. Therefore, the state government would conduct a detailed study and suggest farmers which crops were suitable to be grown, to fetch a good price for the harvest. The government would also extend help to farmers to set up small food processing plants near their fields, the chief minister said. He said the government is planning to set up a new board to boost the export of agri-products, on the lines of APEDA (Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority). Madhya Pradesh had earlier witnessed large-scale violence during a farmers’ protest that left six cultivators dead in police firing in Mandsaur district on 6 June 2017. Congress president Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to hold a condolence-cum-public meeting in Mandsaur on 6 June.