DW BUREAU / chandigarh The National delegation of Confederation of NGOs of Rural India (CNRI) handed over the letter to Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar at Krisw23hi Bhavan on Wednesday extending their support to the new agricultural farm laws. Addressing a delegation of the Confederation of NGOs of Rural India (CNRI) Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said agriculture is an important sector for India. The government "is and will be" committed to strengthening the sector. Binod Anand, CNRI Secretary General, presented the letters of support to the Agriculture Minister, of the 3,13,363 signatories, 12,895 are from Punjab and 1,27,653 from Haryana. There are 14 crore farmers in India out of which around 1.6 crore farmers are from Punjab and Haryana. Those sitting at Singhu border do not represent all farmers in the country. Anand further added: "We went to several places in Mansa, Bathinda, Ludhiana, Taran Tarn, Amritsar district and contacted several farmers and BKU unions, took their views and learned many things. Farmers in different places have different issues but are scared to come out in open. Despite that, they have given their support to us, around 12,895 are from Punjab. Some of the salient points raised by CNRI and Sagyana were that only 5.8 per cent of the farmers in India benefit from MSP. The current system of MSP promotes environmentally unsustainable agricultural practices. Prime example of this is a large scale production of a water guzzling crop such as paddy in Punjab which has fast depleting ground water levels. CNRI and Sagyana also recommended collecting primary data on the following topics to further understand farmers' opinion and experience with the mechanisms proposed by the government through the three farm laws: A nationwide survey of farmers to estimate what percentage of their crops are sold at MSP in APMCs and what percentage is sold outside APMCs. (editor@dailyworld.in)