India has decided to continue regulating prices of seeds and other products whenever required. Since there was no uniformity in pricing of Bt cotton seeds across the country, an uniform price of Rs 800 per packet for Bt cotton seed has been fixed.

Farmers’ marketing expenditure will be reduced. A national agriculture market is being set up for electronic trading. In this program, 585 agricultural mandis of India will be connected to each other. It’s felt these efforts would minimise the interference of mediators to a great extent and help farmers get the maximum price for their crops. Foreign investment will also be encouraged for this initiative. Indigenous cotton varieties would be promoted in states like Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.

Steps will be taken to remove debt problems of farmers. The agricultural credit target of Rs 9 lakh crore will be increased for the year 2016-17 to bring farmers within the institutional fold.

As a matter of policy big companies and multinational corporations will not be allowed to charge arbitrary prices. The prices of items like cotton will be regulated whenever required. The Cotton Seed Price (Control) Order fixes an uniform price of Bt cotton seed in 2015 for the benefit of farmers.