‘States unable to implement farmer price support schemes’
Context
Infrastructure and funding required
What has happened?
The Centre’s proposals to decentralise price support schemes for farmers are not viable as State governments do not possess the infrastructure or the willingness required to implement them, said S.K. Singh, additional managing director of the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED), on the sidelines of the Agriculture Ministry’s annual kharif conference on Thursday.
Reasons
States fail to maintain a revolving fund from which they can pay farmers over the 10-day window before they receive payment from the Centre; some also lack storage space, adequate number of procurement centres, and trained surveyors
