Comments
Farmers associations and agri-economists are angry over the “meagre” hike in the minimum support price (MSP) for paddy, pulses and other crops.
The government on Wednesday announced a hike in the MSP of ₹60 a quintal for paddy and ₹425 for pulses, far below the farmers’ expectations.
Swaminathan panel formulaThe hike in the MSP falls well short of the recommendations of the National Commission on Farmers, headed by Prof MS Swaminathan, which had recommended that the MSP by 50 per cent more than the weighted cost of production.
P Chengal Reddy, Secretary-General of the Consortium of Indian Farmers’ Associations (CIFA), said the association “rejects” the MSP since it is “too low”.
The BJP had in its election manifesto, promised that MSPs would reflect the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations, but this year’s hikes are nowhere near that,” he said.
Rising production cost“The government has not taken into account the increasing cost of production. Given the drought situation, farmers were expecting good support prices for paddy, but the hike, seemingly made mechanically, are negligible,” Vijoo Krishnan, President of the All-India Kisan Sabha, told BusinessLine.
The AIKS had demanded an MSP hike of ₹2,000 a quintal for paddy, he added.
Pulse farmers hit“The hike in support prices is well below our expectation. When the government could import tur at ₹6,000 a quintal, it is highly disappointing that they are offering only ₹5,050 for domestic farmers,” Basavaraj Ingin, President of the Karnataka Tur Growers Association in Gulbarga, said.
“Considering the current market price of tur and the increase in the cost of production due to higher labour wages, the government should have fixed the support price for the pulse at ₹10,000 a quintal,” Ingin felt.
Too lowEchoing the sentiment that the hikes are too low, GV Ramanjaneyulu of the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture pointed out that the Centre had promised to double the incomes of farmers.
“Contrary to their promise, they have hiked the MSP of paddy by just 4 per cent, which doesn’t even cover inflation,” he said.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.