Cost & debt rising, yield stagnant: Apex Court panel on agri distress

SUGGESTS EXAMINING MSP, OTHER MEASURES

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NEW DELHI: A Supreme Court-appointed panel on farmers' grievances and protests has filed its interim report, listing reasons for agrarian distress which among others include stagnant yield, rising costs and debts and inadequate marketing system.

The high-powered committee, constituted on September 2 under former Punjab and Haryana High Court judge Nawab Singh to resolve the grievances of farmers agitating at the Shambhu border, also suggested solutions including examining the possibility of giving legal sanctity to Minimum Support Price and offering direct income support.

While forming the committee, the SC had observed farmers' protest should not be politicised. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan on Friday took the interim report on record and praised the committee for its efforts and framing of the issues to be examined and defuse the agitation.

In its 11-page interim report, the panel said, "It is a well-known fact that the farming community in the country in general and that of Punjab and Haryana in particular has been facing an ever-increasing crisis over the last more than two decades."