New Delhi
The National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) today launched its “Farm Gate to Home Gate” campaign aimed at procuring agricultural products directly from farmers and selling them to consumers at affordable prices.
The campaign, expected to provide relief to consumers from the high prices of food products, was inaugurated by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.
Ms Dikshit said her government would work with NAFED to keep prices down and warned hoarders against unjustified increases in prices. She said NAFED and other government agencies had succeeded in providing a network that offered essential items at reasonable rates. This included outlets of NAFED, Mother Dairy and the Delhi Government’s own departments, she said.
“We expect prices to fall further in the next 10-15 days,” she said, pointing out that government inspectors and officials would keep a close watch to prevent hoarding. She recalled how wholesalers and retailers began coming forward with offers to reduce prices the day NAFED and Delhi government began talks.
NAFED plans to extend the campaign to other regions soon, beginning with Chennai on February 15 and Kerala on the following day. It will cover Mumbai and Kolkata in the next few weeks.
“We have decided to help the common man with the assistance of the state governments whenever there is a spiraling of prices,” Mr K V Thomas, Union Minister of State for Agriculture, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, said.
“The Farm Gate to Home Gate initiative is in keeping with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s advice to go directly to the farmers. The farmers will get reasonable prices for their produce and the consumers will be able to buy them at affordable rates,” NAFED Managing Director C V Ananda Bose added.