Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said the Centre will continue to support the minimum support price for crops, which is...
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said the Centre will continue to support the minimum support price for crops, which is one of the key demands of farmers’ ongoing protests against the Centre’s farm laws, the Hindustan Times reported.
“If there are some farmers who have doubts and want to speak about it, I am glad the agriculture minister is sitting and engaging in meaningful conversation with them with an open heart,” the finance minister said at the 18th Hindustan Times Leadership Summit. “I am sure something will come out of it.”
Sitharaman, however, refused to comment if the government should write MSP into law, citing the negations with farmers but said the government was taking the matter seriously.
She said that the government has proved its intentions, which can be seen by the high level of procurement over the past six years. “Between 2014 and 2020, compared to a similar number of years previously, we have proven that we take MSP seriously,” the finance minister said. “We procure under MSP, much more than what the earlier governments had done. We have given the farmers a lot more money under MSP than what was done before.”
She noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently spoke about the MSP in Varanasi...
