Fri Feb 14 18:23:50 UTC 2025: ## Farmers and Government Hold Cordial Talks on MSP Guarantee, Next Meeting Scheduled

**Chandigarh, February 16** – A two-and-a-half-hour meeting took place today between Union Minister Pralhad Joshi and representatives from the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha. The meeting, held in Chandigarh, focused on farmers’ demands, most prominently a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP) on crops. The discussions, described as cordial by both sides, follow a year-long protest by farmers at the Punjab-Haryana border.

Union Minister Joshi, along with Punjab Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian and other state officials, engaged with a 28-member farmer delegation. This included farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who participated despite being on an indefinite hunger strike, transported to the meeting in an ambulance.

Minister Joshi stated that the government shared details of its farmer welfare initiatives and announced a follow-up meeting scheduled for February 22nd, to be led by Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Farmer leaders echoed the positive tone of the meeting, confirming the February 22nd date for further negotiations.

Key demands from the farmers remain a legal guarantee for MSP, debt waivers, farmer pensions, electricity tariff regulation, withdrawal of police cases, and compensation for farmers who died during previous protests. The reinstatement of the 2013 Land Acquisition Act is also being sought.

This meeting follows previous rounds of talks between central ministers and farmer representatives in February 2024, which proved inconclusive, as well as a prior rejection by farmers of a government proposal to purchase pulses, maize, and cotton at MSP for five years. The farmers’ protest at Shambhu and Khanauri border points began on February 13, 2023.

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