Prakash Kammaradi, Agriculture Economist, at a press conference in Mangaluru on Saturday, April 20.
| Photo Credit: H.S. MANJUNATH

The government should announce legally backed minimum procurement price for food crops and the Congress and the BJP, two major political parties contesting the Lok Sabha elections, should make their commitment on the same clear, former Chairman of Karnataka Agriculture Price Commission Prakash Kammaradi said here on Saturday, April 20.

Addressing presspersons, he said that there are 21 food crops. If the government was to purchase them by offering a minimum support price backed by the legislation, it might have to reserve ₹5 lakh crore per annum. The fund will not be a huge burden to the Union government.

He said that farmers have been demanding to offer the minimum support price for food crops with legal backing. The government should fulfil their demand.

The Congress has now promised that it will procure food crops by offering legally backed minimum support price (MSP). But it should become a reality if it forms the government. The Union government led by the BJP too has said that it is ready to procure cotton, jowar, and pulses by offering minimum support price. Its commitment to offering legally backed MSP should become clear, he said.

The commission headed by him submitted a report on the legally backed MSP to the government in 2018.

If the stock of food grains purchased by the government by offering MSP was in excess then the government can distribute the same among children and women suffering from malnutrition. A legally backed MSP scheme avoids the intervention of middlemen while farmers selling their produces, he said.