A ten-member team from CIFA headed by Secretary General P Changal Reddy held a series of pre-budget discussions with the Central leaders including Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Commerce Minister Kamalnath, Rural Development Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, and the  Commission for Agriculture Costs and Prices (CACP) in New Delhi recently.

CIFA, which has representation of farmers’ associations of 22 States, acts as a pressure group to get the best deal for the farming sector from the Centre by making scientific analysis of the issues.

Karnataka Pradesh Red Gram Growers’ Association President Basavaraj Ingin who is also the Convener of the Pulses Commodity Council of the CIFA said the selected representatives would be writing to the MPs of respective States on the farmers’  issues. The MPs will be asked to influence the finance minister on the issues raised by CIFA.

He is also writing to all the 28 Lok Sabha and 12 Rajya Sabha members from the State.  The Consortium has also decided to pressurise political parties to make a separate manifesto for agriculture sector. Mr Ingin welcomed the announcement of the BJP leader B S Yeddyurappa that if BJP comes to power in the ensuing assembly elections, a separate budget for agriculture would be presented.

CIFA is also influencing the CACP to determine minimum support price  for agriculture commodities on a scientific basis.