Chidambaram assures farmers of reasonable price

Home minister P Chidambaram has said the Centre has taken various steps to augment agriculture production and assured reasonable price to farmers for their produce.

The procurement price of paddy and wheat were hiked to Rs 875 and 1,100 per quintal from Rs 500 and Rs 650 per quintal, respectively, four years ago, he said inaugurating a chilling plant of a diary at Kootturavupatty village near here.

He said the earning capacity of farmers rearing milch animals had increased and asked those who were in the sector to pay greater attention towards such animals.

Chidambaram, who was elected to Lok Sabha from Sivaganga parliamentary constituency, said he had launched various schemes in the district last year to promote agriculture and diary-farming and instructed banks to provide loans to the farmers.

He asked the farmers to increase production, as the country could not meet the requirement of rice, wheat, milk and foodgrains through imports. It was important to meet the demand mainly by inland cultivation, he said.

The UPA government had introduced Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana and National Food Security Mission with an outlay of Rs 30,000 crore considering the importance of agriculture, Chidambaram added.