New Delhi : Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday said the decision to hike the Minimum Support Price (MSP) was taken by the Cabinet and clarified remarks on decreasing MSP have been “falsely attributed” to him.
Union cabinet under PM Narendra Modi’s leadership had decided to hike MSP. I have not made any statements about decreasing MSP. This has been falsely attributed to me and I feel bad about it. Farmers should stay away from the wrong news. The Central government has always protected farmers and will continue doing so,” Mr Gadkari told.
Earlier in an interview, I had said that there is a surplus of sugar, wheat and rice in our country and there is a lack of oil seeds. We import edible oil worth Rs 90,000 crore. So, there is a need to change the crop pattern,” he said.
Mr Gadkari stated that some measures were decided to increase the production of ethanol in the country.
“In order to benefit farmers, it was decided to produce ethanol with rice and wheat surplus. In Haryana and Punjab, we have to set up corn in large numbers which will help in ethanol production and there will be an increase in the income,” he said.
Briefing the media on the Cabinet decisions, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar had said that the MSP has been increased for all the mandated kharif crops for marketing season 2020-21.