The government has decided to place draft of the new national policy on farmers in Parliament in the next week.
Speaking to mediapersons on Tuesday, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, said, ?I have personally requested Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to allow us to present the draft of the national policy on farmers in Parliament next week.?
Pawar said the government would float more global tenders for import of wheat to build up adequate buffer stock. He said that this year the government agencies have already procured 11.2-million tonne wheat for the buffer stock. ?We need more wheat to build up the buffer stock to meet any contingency,? he said adding, ?We need to float more tenders from time to time till we get right quality of wheat at right prices.?
The minister denied reports of Pakistan banning or withholding imports of Indian sugar. Earlier there were reports of Pakistan withholding imports of Indian sugar being done on government account. However the private importers in Pakistan are not debarred from importing sugar from India.
Pawar said that areas under all-khraif (summer) crops have increased this year and he expected a bumper crop at the harvest. He, however, said that some crop damages were reported in Marathwada region and other places in the country due to bad weather conditions like floods and scanty rainfall at places.