(a)whether the Government is ensuring that farmer`s interests are not
sacrificed at the altar of inflation management;
(b)if so,the complete details thereof;
(c)whether the Government is reducing the trading margins between the farm
gate prices and retail prices, rather than bringing the farm prices down;and
(d)if so,the details thereof and present status thereof?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE(SHRI NAMO NARAIN MEENA)
(a) to (d) In the current financial year, inflation based on the consumer price
indices remains high in the range of 8.6-17.6 per cent during May-2009 to
January-2010, whereas the WPI inflation remained negative from June 2009 to
August, 2009 and it was at 8.56 per cent in January, 2010. The weighted
contribution of food items (primary and manufactured products) was more than 55
per cent. The Government has taken several measures to check inflation in food
items while protecting the interest of farmers and bring down trading margins,
which include: reducing import duties to zero- for rice, wheat, pulses, edible
oils (crude) and sugar; reducing import duties on refined & hydrogenated oils &
vegetable oils; allowed import of raw sugar at zero duty under open general
licence (OGL); two million tonnes of wheat and one million tonnes of rice have
been allocated to states for distribution to retail consumers over and above
normal public Distribution System allocation; banned export of non-basmati rice,
edible oils and pulses (except, kabuli chana) and imposed stock limit orders in
the case of paddy, rice, pulses, sugar, edible oils and edible oilseeds.
Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) have been progressively increased, leading to
increased acreage, production, productivity and central procurement. For the
marketing season of 2010-11, the MSP of wheat was increased from Rs 1080 to
Rs. 1100 per quintal. In 2009-10, for different grades of paddy, for Kharif
marketing season the MSP was increased from Rs 850-880 to Rs.950-980 per quintal
with a bonus of Rs 50 per quintal for all varieties. In addition to the above,
Government has also taken initiatives such as the National Rural Employment
Guarantee Scheme (NREGS); Integrated Scheme of oilseeds, Pulses, oil Palm and
Maize (ISOPOM), National Food Security Mission (NFSM) and Rashtriya Krishi Vikas
Yojna (RKVY) to improve production and productivity in agriculture.