‘Reimburse GST to farmers, revive agricultural research’

As climate change stoked food security concerns forcing the government to restrict exports of a number of items, experts suggested that the government should revive agriculture research that has historically paid rich dividends especially in the production of basmati rice that dominates export, it is learnt.

Discussions also touched upon ways to extend the benefits under PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi to non-landowning farmers that comprise nearly 30 per cent of the workforce involved in crop production. Currently under the scheme, the government makes direct cash transfers to landowning farmers.

To ease the pressure on farmers, farmer bodies are learnt to have sought a mechanism to reimburse the Goods and Services Tax (GST) that farmers pays on input materials such as fertilizers and pesticides. Additionally, they suggested that the government restrain from importing items below the Minimum Support Price (MSP) that would render domestic produce uncompetitive.

To address sticky food inflation, experts suggested the creation of buffer stock of all important farm produce. In view of volatile agricultural production due to climate change and extreme weather events, there were suggestions that the government should step up procurement and offload during lean season in a bid to ease inflationary pressures, it is learnt.