Govt sets up panel to make MSP more effective, transparent

New Delhi, July 18:  The Central government has constituted a committee that will work to make the Minimum Support Price (MSP) more effective and transparent, officials said on Monday.

Apart from MSP, the committee will also promote zero budget-based farming and changing crop patterns, keeping in mind the changing needs of the country.

Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZNBF) means raising crops without using any fertiliser and pesticide or any other external materials. The word zero budget refers to zero cost of production of all crops.

The committee, which will be headed by former Agriculture Secretary Sanjay Aggarwal, will consist of representatives from the Centre and state governments, farmers, agricultural scientists and economists.

The committee will primarily work on three focus areas, i.e., MSP, Natural Farming and Crop Diversification.

According to a notification issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, the committee will seek suggestions to make MSP available to the farmers of the country by making the system more effective and transparent.

"Suggestions will be sought on practicality to give more autonomy to the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) and measures to make it more scientific," the government said.

The committee has been formed to strengthen the agricultural marketing system as per the changing requirements of the country to ensure higher value to the farmers through remunerative prices of their produce by taking advantage of the domestic and export opportunities.

Under the area of crop diversification, mapping of existing cropping patterns of agro-ecological zones of producer and consumer states will be done.