Punjab government today termed as "misfortune of the country" the unremunerative prices to the farmers and urged the Centre to ensure they get "profitable" prices by implementing the Swaminathan Commission report.
It also said that the rising gap between farmers' income and expenditure was driving them to commit suicide.
"It is a misfortune of the country...When you are giving wheat at Rs 2 per kg, then why don't you pay higher prices to farmers for their crop," Punjab Agriculture Minister Tota Singh said here today during a press conference.
Asked whether the state government had any hope from the BJP-led Centre and why it was unable to bail farmers out of the crisis, he said, the Modi government should now honour its promise of implementing Swaminathan Commission report.
"Modiji has fulfilled 90 per cent demands of 'Jai Jawan' and now he should look into honouring the demands of 'Jai Kisan'," he said, hinting at implementation of Swaminathan Commission report, which promises payment of 50 per cent profit over and above input cost to the farmers.
He said, Punjab government had been demanding implementation of the report.
The state government has also, in its suggestions to Niti Aayog for draft policy paper on agriculture, sought a plot- based weather insurance scheme, procurement of alternative crops like pulses, maize by the Centre, implementation of MSP for 22 crops other than wheat and paddy.
On the rise in number of suicides by farmers in Punjab, Singh held the rising gap between farmers' income and input cost responsible for the step.
"In the past, farmers used to save money with prices they got for their produce. But now, increase in prices of crops does not match the rise in input and other cost the farmers have to incur and hence, there is a big gap between the two. It is the main reason behind farmers taking the extreme step," he said.
He asserted that the Punjab government had been taking up the issues related to farming community with the Centre on a regular basis.
As far as the state government was concerned, the minister said it had been providing free power worth Rs 5,000 crore per annum for agriculture sector.
On the issue of whitefly attack on cotton crop this year,
the minister, whose resignation was demanded by opposition parties like Congress for spurious pesticide scam, said that whitefly attack on cotton crop was a "natural disaster".
He also accused the opposition of making hue and cry over the issue of whitefly attack in the wake of 2017 assembly polls.
"It is a year of elections. Punjab faced 40-45 per cent cotton loss because of whitefly, whereas it caused 70-75 per cent and 100 pc loss to crops in Haryana and Rajasthan respectively.
"No issue was made by political parties in those states. Basically in Punjab farmers are being used by political outfits for their political gains," he said.
The minister claimed the state government has offered compensation to affected farmers while neighbouring state has not given any compensation so far.
As "pesticide" scam, which rocked the state, was blamed for widespread cotton damage, a Director level official in Punjab Agriculture department was arrested for his alleged involvement in the supply of "spurious" pesticides which came as a major embarrassment for SAD-BJP regime.
The state government handed over the investigation to the police.
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The pest attack had been widespread in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat, Singh said, adding that Punjab was the first state to reach out to farmers not only to guide them about the measures needed to be taken to save the crop, but also provide them timely relief.
A compensation of Rs 644.55 crore was disbursed to the farmers for the cotton crop loss.
It has also been decided to provide Rs 64.45 crore to the agriculture labourers who lost their jobs as a result of cotton crop loss, he added.
The Minister further said the Department had notified a new policy to provide relief to the families of farmers who commit suicides by enhancing the compensation to the affected families, from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 3 lakh.
In addition, the policy also aims to assist families in their complete rehabilitation by offering them preferential assistance and treatment under various schemes of the Department of Agriculture, Horticulture, Education, Social Security and Health, he said.
Announcing the achievements of state agriculture department, Singh said the state had achieved production of 266.68 lakh metric tonne (LMT) of foodgrain during 2014-15.
Paddy production during Kharif 2015 was about 180 LMTs, which was nine percent higher than the previous year.
Basmati production in this kharif season was 32.46 LMTs, less than 2014, but 40 per cent higher than the produce during the year 2013-14, he said, adding the area under basmati cultivations had risen to over two lakh hectares during the last two years.
Likewise, the area under Maize had also increased by 22 per cent during the last two years. The expected foodgrain production during 2015-16 is over 300 LMTs, he said.
The area under horticulture crops had gone up by 23,200 hectares during the last two years and the value of horticulture produce in Punjab has grown up by around 14 per cent.
Singh said the state government has decided to set up peri-urban vegetable clusters in seven districts -- Sangrur, Hoshiarpur, Patiala, Jalandhar, Fatehgarh Sahib, Ludhiana and Amritsar -- which would be developed in collaboration with agri-export promotion body APEDA.
The centres would not only provide technical support to the farmers, but also help them increase their production with safe provisions and affordable inputs.
