Ahead of the countrywide farmers’ rally in the Capital on November 20, the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), a nationwide coalition of over 180 farmer organisations, on Thursday announced its “#KisanKiLoot” (Looting the Farmer) campaign.

Citing a study of crop prices across the country this season, the AIKSCC said “considering the top seven crops (paddy, maize, soybean, cotton, bajra, groundnut and urad), the arrivals in mandis so far and the actual market prices, farmers have lost ₹6,283 crore compared with the minimum support price (MSP).”

Considering the total crop that would be sold by farmers this season (marketable surplus), the estimated loss of farmers compared with MSP is ₹35,968 crore, said AIKSCC, adding that these are the “most conservative estimates because the actual prices obtained by the farmers in many cases are much below the official APMC market prices used in these estimates.”

“The #KisanKiLoot campaign intends to showcase to the nation how farmers are being denied remunerative prices after all the hardships and risks that they face in producing food for the nation,” AIKCC said in a statement, after a press conference by VM Singh, Raju Shetty of Swabhimani Shetkari Sangathan; Yogendra Yadav of Swaraj Abhiyan; Hannan Mollah of All India Kisan Sabha; Medha Patkar of National Alliance of People’s Movements; Sunilam of Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, Ashish Mitttal of All India Kisan Mazdoor Sabha; Avik Saha of Jai Kisan Andolan; Kirankumar Vissa of Rythu Swarajya Vedika, among others.

The AIKSCC said this season, farmers were facing huge losses due to low crop prices.

“After four successive seasons of drought, farmers are suffering from three successive seasons of low crop prices. All major crops are selling below the government’s own MSP,” the coalition of farmer bodies said.

For instance, while paddy has a MSP of ₹1,550 per quintal, the average mandi price that a farmer gets is ₹1,397 per quintal. Considering that the mandi sales till November 7 was 2,066.5 lakh quintal, the cumulative loss for farmers was estimated to be ₹3,192 crore, it said. Similar losses in the case of urad dal and soybean could be in the range of ₹1,126 crore and ₹830 crore, respectively.

The coalition of farmers’ bodies further said that the losses incurred by farmers are actually much higher as the announced MSPs are highly inadequate.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP manifesto had promised in the 2014 elections that MSPs would be fixed at 50 per cent margin above the cost of production.

“Considering C2+50 per cent as the fair remunerative price promised by the government, the loss faced by farmers is more than ₹2.03 lakh crore. This is the true extent of #KisanKiLoot in a single season in just the top seven crops,” it said.

“This massive injustice in prices is pushing farmers into debt and suicides across the country,” AIKSCC alleged.

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