New Delhi, June 25 The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) today gave its approval for the statutory minimum price of sugarcane.

It has been fixed at 107.76 rupees per quintal for this year's sugar season.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, Home Minister P Chidambaram said that where the recovery rate is higher than 9.5 per cent a premium of 1.13 rupees per every 0.1 percentage point increase in the recovery would be given.

The sugarcane price for 2008-09 was 81 rupees 18 paise.

In another decision, the CCEA approved the proposal for strengthening of the Indian Agriculture Research Institute at an estimated cost of about 455 crore rupees.

This will benefit stakeholders including farming communities, private entrepreneurs and research institutes and agricultural universities.

The Cabinet also gave its node to the centrally sponsored poultry development scheme with a plan outlay of 150 crore rupees. The scheme will have three components.

Assistance to state poultry farms, the rural backyard poultry development and the poultry estates.

Chidamabaram said the scheme is expected not only to help the rural farmers to gain supplementary income but also to provide nutrition to the family.

"The scheme will be implemented throughout the country and will benefit 3.85 lakh below poverty line families," he added. (ANI)