TAD NewsDesk, Jharkhand: For the agriculture sector, things have been a bit rough in the past few months. Amidst ongoing protests and passing of Bills against the Centre Farm Laws, the Jharkhand government is devising a plan to do something more on the positive side. The government is planning to fix the minimum support price (MSP) for vegetables in the state.
The news got attention by the announcement of Jharkhand agriculture minister, Badal Patralekh. He said that the emphasis is also to provide a fair and just marketplace for the vegetable farmers. Moreover, he added that the agriculture department had formed a committee which would be headed by agriculture secretary Abu Bakr Siddique. The committee would focus on ensuring the functionalities of MSP for vegetables so that the farmers don’t have to sell the produce at prices lower than the expected minimum.
The plan could come into effect in the next three months.
Mr Badal added,
“We wanted to introduce MSP for vegetables from this year but the plan got delayed due to the Covid-19 induced lockdown because of which neither I or my officials could visit some of the progressive states to find out how it was done there.”
The MSP would be provided to as many varieties of vegetables as possible. The Committee would decide upon the specificities of the list. Some of the possible ones on the list would be:
- Peas
- Tomatoes
- Gourd
- French beans
- Cauliflower
- Cabbage
Jharkhand is rich in the production of vegetables. It produces around 30lakh metric tonnes for the whole year. This year the agriculture department has formed an alliance with the private agency All Seasons Farm Fresh to export a tone of vegetables to Dubai.
This consignment would consist of the following items:
- 300kg of Bitter gourd,
- 50kg of Ladies finger,
- 150kg of Bottle gourd,
- 50kg of French beans,
- 100 kg of Coccinia grandis (kundru)
At a time of despair and unsatisfaction with the current agricultural scenario where farmers over the country are delusional in a lot of ways, this news comes with a ray of hopes for many vegetable farmers in Jharkhand.
Source: Krishi Jagran
