New Delhi : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in its election manifesto, has promised a time-to-time hike in the MSP if elected to power for the third term. The party released its "Sankalp Patra" on Sunday at its headquarters in New Delhi in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Finance Minister Nirmala Sithara
The BJP unveiled its election manifesto with a slew of promises for farmers, such as strengthening PM KISAN, PM Fasal Bima Yojana and news clusters for vegetable production and storage among others.
"The dignity and empowerment of farmers is one of our top-most priorities. We have empowered our Kisans through a variety of measures including soil health cards, micro-irrigation, crop insurance, seed supply, and direct financial assistance under PM Kisan Samman Yojana. We have increased MSP multi-fold. We are committed to support our Kisan families and empower them to lead better lives," the party said in its manifesto.
"We have ensured an unprecedented increase in MSP for major crops, and we will continue to increase MSP from time to time," it added.
The document, which underlined the party's 'Modi ki guarantee' slogan, lays down the Narendra Modi government's vision and promises for every section of society. The manifesto stressed Prime Minister Modi's focus on 'GYAN' - the poor, the youth, farmers and the women.
It also said that it will further strengthen the PM Fasal Bima Yojana through more technological interventions to ensure speedy and more accurate assessment, faster payouts and quicker grievance resolution.
The party further said that it will support the cultivators to make the country self-reliant in the production of pulses (like tur, urad, masoor, moong and chana) and edible oil production (like mustard, soybean, til and groundnut).
"We will support Annadatas with requisite farming inputs to increase the production of nutritious vegetables by establishing new clusters for the production of essentials like onion, tomato, potato etc. We will also set up storage and logistics facilities at these clusters," it added.
"Building on the success of the International Year of Millets, we will promote Shree Anna (millets) for food security, nutrition and environmental sustainability and make Bharat a Global Millet Hub," he added.
Notably, in February this year, the farmers called for a huge protest- 'Delhi Chalo' over their several demands, including a legal guarantee for minimum support price on all crops, according to the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission, and a farm loan waiver.
During the last round of talks with the farmers' delegation, which ended past midnight on February 18, the panel of three Union ministers made an offer to buy five crops--moong dal, urad dal, tur dal, maize, and cotton--from farmers at MSP for five years through central agencies.
However, the protesting farmers turned down the offer and returned to their protest sites.
Meanwhile, the party had promised to launch the "National Mission on Natural Farming" to promote nature-friendly, climate-resilient, remunerative agriculture for food and nutrition that secures the country.
The party further said that it will launch a Krishi Infrastructure Mission for integrated planning and coordinated implementation of agri-infrastructure projects like storage facilities, irrigation, grading and sorting units, cold storage facilities, and food processing among others.
"Further, we will launch technology-enabled irrigation initiatives to implement cutting-edge technology for efficient water management," it added.
The BJP also promised to launch an indigenous 'Bharat Krishi' satellite for farm-related activities like crop forecasting, pesticide application, irrigation, soil health, and weather forecasting, among others.
"We will develop Digital Public Infrastructure to remove information asymmetry in agriculture and provide farmer-centric solutions and services. We will expand the network of dairy cooperatives in villages in the next five years with facilities of fodder banks, milk testing laboratories, bulk milk coolers, and milk processing units," the manifesto released by the BJP reads. It also said that it will make efforts to protect indigenous cattle breeds and make efforts to increase their productivity and preserve their genetic diversity.