Minister stresses need to amend act to protect farmers

West Bengal agriculture marketing minister Arup Roy on Tuesday stressed the need for an amendment to the agricultural produce marketing (regulation) act, 1972 to protect the potato farmers in particular and ensure the consumers to get the produce in right price.

"An amendment to the act is essential to ensure right price to the potato farmers and protect the rights of the consumers to get the produce in right price," Roy told reporters here.

The amendment is needed to curb the malpractices committed by middlemen which results in the farmers getting low price and the customers being forced to pay higher price, he said.

The state has produced one crore tonnes of potato last year against its demand of nearly 70 lakh tonnes.

However, the cold storage capacity in the state was only 56 lakh tonnes, Roy said adding that the state government has decided to export potato to Bangladesh and Centre has agreed to cooperate.

"Union commerce minister Anand Sharma has agreed to cooperate the state government for exporting surplus produce of potato, mango, litchi, baby-corn and some other agricultural produce," Roy said.