A two-day National
Seminar on "Methodological Issues in the Fixation of Minimum
Support Prices" is being organized by the Commission for
Agricultural Costs & Prices (CACP) here on Wednesday. Union
Minister for Agriculture Shri Ajit Singh will inaugurate the Seminar.
It will be attended by a number of leading agricultural economists,
Members of Parliament, representative farmers and farmers’ organizations
and senior officials of the Union and State Governments. Distinguished
agricultural economist, Prof. Y.K. Alagh will deliver the keynote
address.
The Seminar will
discuss the appropriateness of the methodology currently followed
by CACP and the Union Government in recommending/fixing the Minimum
Support Prices (MSP). The issues to be re-examined in detail include
the assignment of weightage to various factors in the fixation
of minimum support prices, the question of providing remunerative
price to farmers in an uncertain market situation, hazards of
linking MSPs with market prices and rationale of fixing one MSP
for all regions. The Seminar will also discuss the role of MSPs
in promoting agricultural diversification, rationale of using
existing cost concepts in the fixation of MSPs, ensuring effective
price support to all commodities and the crop and region specific
problems of farmers in the context of cost and pricing.
