Chandigarh, June 12: In a bid to further alleviate the woes of the state’s distressed farmers, Punjab CM Amarinder Singh has sought a hike in MSP on various crops for Rabi 2019-20 from the Central Government.On the directives of the Chief Minister, the State Agriculture Department has come out with a detailed proposal for hike in the MSP of Wheat from Rs. 1840 per quintal in 2018-19 to Rs. 2710 in 2019-20, and Barley from Rs. 1440 to Rs. 1974 per quintal.

The proposal, submitted to the Commission for Agriculture Costs & Prices (CACP), also seeks hike in the MSP of Gram from the earlier Rs. 4620 to Rs. 5631 per quintal, and of Rapeseed and Mustard from Rs. 4200 to Rs. 5384 per quintal. The hike, said the Chief Minister, was important for promoting crops like Barley, Gram, Rapeseed and Mustard in the state, to give much needed push for crop diversification, that would help arrest the deleting ground water table in Punjab.

Captain said while the state government had taken all possible steps to ease the problems of the farmers, including farm debt waiver, the Centre’s intervention was needed to support these measures, especially in the matter of MSP which was under its control.

The Chief Minister reiterated his demand for in to implementation of the MS Swaminathan Commission report to ensure the much-needed improvement in the agriculture system and better remuneration for the farmers.