Hike in MSP is political, say farmers -Sreenivasa Rao Dasari

-Deccan Chronicle

Seek a state-level intervention corporation.

Hyderabad: The latest decision of the Centre to enhance minimum support price (MSP) for 14 crops has triggered a fresh debate on the cost of production and the procurement mechanism. Farmers say that the increase in MSP was a mere political decision and nothing has happened in reality, while agriculture experts agree that lack of consensus and clarity on support price is further adding to concerns of the farming community. The farming community is demanding a state-level intervention corporation for all crops.

In February last, the Centre had announced that the MSP of 14 notified kharif crops would be fixed at least 1.5 times higher than the production cost. A few days ago, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved MSP of 14 kharif (summer-sown) crops.  The MSP is for over 24 agricultural products; in reality it’s guaranteed only for four — cotton, paddy, wheat and sugarcane. This is on account of skewed procurement by the governments, which purchase paddy and wheat for their public distribution system (PDS) while neglecting grains like millets, pulses and oil seeds, according to the Consortium of Indian Farmers Associations (CIFA).

Mr Bojja Dasratha Rami Reddy, CIFA secretary-general, said, “We demand that the Centre and state governments establish a state-level intervention corporation to ensure the purchase of other agricultural products at MSP. The necessity of such a corporation can be gauged as the cotton price is maintained due to the existence of Cotton Corporation of India and the sugar price is ensured by the sugar mills.”

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