Rabi MSP hike not enoughto cover costs, say farmers

The Centre on Tuesday announced an increase in minimum support prices ranging from 6.4 per cent to 10.8 per cent for the forthcoming rabi season over the previous year.

For wheat, the main rabi cereal crop, the MSP has been hiked by 6.8 per cent or ₹110 over previous year’s ₹1,625 per quintal. Similarly for rapeseed-mustard, another major rabi crop, the MSP hike was 8.1 per cent at ₹4,000. “The Government has substantially increased MSP for rabi agricultural crops,” announced Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh on Twitter.

For gram or chana, the main rabi pulses crop, the hike in MSP was ₹400 per quintal at ₹4,400 or 10 per cent per cent over previous year. Similarly, for safflower the MSP increase is ₹400 at ₹4,100 per quintal or 10.8 per cent over last year. For Barley, the MSP has been hiked by 6.4 per cent at ₹1,410 per quintal and for Masur or lentil, the increase is 7.6 per cent at ₹4,250 per quintal.

Though the government claimed that the hike in MSP was substantial over last year, farmers were not happy with the announcement stating that the increase does not even cover their costs, forget about fetching profits.

The hike in Rabi MSP will not make any difference to the beleaguered farmers, who are already battling a rising input costs and lower commodity prices, said Rakesh Tikait of Bharatiya Kisan Union.

Instead of announcing a hike in MSP, the government should provide a direct cash subsidy to the farmers to overcome the current crisis. “We have suggested that the government provide a direct cash subsidy of ₹25,000 per acre to farmers and link it to MNREGA so that rural employment is also created,” Tikait said.

Also the Government should strengthen the procurement mechanism and ensure that the traders in mandis do not buy below the support price, Tikait said.

Devinder Sharma, food and trade policy analyst, said the hike in wheat MSP was disappointing as costs have gone up on account of GST. “I was expecting an increase of at least ₹200 per quintal,” he said. “What is the use of announcing the MSP if the government does not procure the produce that comes into the markets,” Sharma said, referring the prevailing prices of moong, urad and soyabean among others that are ruling below the MSP price levels in various mandis.

Sudhir Panwar of Kisan Jagriti Manch said the increase in MSP will not help the farmers offset the impact of hike in input costs mainly diesel and labour costs.

Further the government should strengthen the procurement mechanism and purchase at least 30 per cent of the produce in each major wheat growing State, which would have some impact on the prices. While the public procurement of wheat is strong and largely confined to Punjab and Haryana, it is yet to pick up in States such as UP, where the prevailing prices are lower than the previous year’s MSP of ₹1,625 across various mandis.

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