Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar on Wednesday justified food price rise saying it actually benefited farmers. Addressing the gathering, largely consisting of farmers, at the inauguration of Amul’s new dairy plant at Dharuhera in Haryana, Mr Pawar said that food price couldn’t remain the same as the price of everything else required by farmers such as petrol and gas were rising.
“The rise in food price actually benefits the farmers of the country. How can it remain the same when the price of everything else required by farmers, including gas, petrol and diesel, are increasing?” Mr Pawar said.
The minister also added that he and his ministry often get blamed for the food price rise. He maintained that the money actually goes to the farmers when the price of potato, tomato and sugar increases.
“India has only four per cent of the world’s water and two percent of the land. But it has more than 16 per cent of the world’s total population. The farmers of our country through their hard work cater to the food requirement of this 16 per cent of world’s population from four percent water and two per cent land. Still they don’t get any benefit from it,” Mr Pawar said.