Madhya Pradesh clears scheme to compensate farmers

Farmers will have to register themselves with mandis by sharing their Aadhaar, bank account and mobile numbers and details of crop cultivation. (File photo)

Less than three months after falling prices led to a massive unrest among farmers, Madhya Pradesh Cabinet on Tuesday cleared the ambitious Mukhya Mantri Bhavantar Bhugtan Yojana that seeks to compensate farmers when prices fall below the MSP.

Soybean, groundnut, til, ramtil, maize, moong, urad and tuar were included under the scheme that seeks to provide fair price to farmers and encourage them to cultivate more oilseeds and pulses. Farmers will have to register themselves with mandis by sharing their Aadhaar, bank account and mobile numbers and details of crop cultivation.

The government will arrive at a modal price by finding the average of selling prices in three mandis in three states. If the selling price of a farmer is more than the modal price but less than the MSP, the difference between his selling price and the MSP will be deposited in his bank account. If the farmer’s selling price is less than the modal price, the farmer will get the difference between the modal price and the MSP.

The government could not clear the scheme in the last Cabinet meeting as it was calculating expenses for the same.