Key State Govts Demand 30-70% Increase In Support Price For Rabi.

NEW DELHI: Key state governments have demanded a massive 30-70% increase in the support price for Rabi or winter sown crops, expressing intense disappointment at the Centre recent decision to rein in the MSP for crops sowed in Kharif. They also demanded an early decision on opening up wheat exports.

Among those who demanded a hefty hike in wheat floor price under the MSP regime at an interactive meeting of stakeholders here under the aegis of the Commission on Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) were UP, Haryana, Maharashtra and Karnataka. Two big agricultural states, UP and Punjab, go to the polls next year, ensuring that the support price issue will remain a key political plank.

In October last, the Centre only increased wheat support marginally by Rs 20/qtl (to Rs 1120/qtl), thanks mainly to enormous wheat stocks already lying with it and boosting the food subsidy spend due to high carrying costs. While the UP government demanded a support price of Rs 1800/qtl for the winter staple in the coming Rabi season, Haryana and Karnataka demanded an MSP of Rs 1500/qtl and Rs 1600/qtl respectively. Ironically, it was Maharashtra, farm minister Sharad Pawar's homestate, who demanded the biggest hike in support for wheat, at Rs 2070/qtl, an representative at the meeting said.

Sowing for summer crops or Kharif is on currently and is likely pick up pace manifold by July, which is the crucial month in term of crop period. The Centre announced support prices for the crops last week, eliciting much disappointment from several farm sector stakeholders countrywide. Farmer organisations and state governments that attended the interactive meeting are understood to have sharply criticised the Centre's recent announcment of a very small hike in paddy support price for this kharif even while farmers were reeling under the below MSP prices both wheat and rice were fetching in the last several weeks at governemt mandis. Stringently criticised also was the Centre's decision to hike support price for paddy this sowing season by a meagre 8% although the CACP had, based on soaring input prices, recommended a hike of close to 16% (Rs 160/qtl) over last year's support price.

Urging a seminal change in the Centre's perception of farmers as only producers, they argued that the impact of inflation was felt sharply by farmers as consumers, and demanded a drastic overhaul in the CACP's current Cost Plus methodology for deriving support prices for key crops under the MSP regime. Echoing a demand raised earlier by the Left parties, farm organisations such as the Kisan Jagriti Manch argued that the methodology should reflect the inflation in WPI and CPI. Manch president Sudhir Panwar said "We demanded the reflection of inflation in CPI and WPI in the MSP since soaring prices affect farmers as with other sections of population and eats into our incomes yearly. Yet the Centre seems oblivious to this."


The demands come in the thick of a perceived failure in the MSP regime for staple crops wheat and rice in several parts of the country over the last few weeks. Pending a decision on the much-vaunted Right to Food law, the Centre has itself contributed to this mess in a big way by holding off open export of foodgrains and/or selling to all buyers at economic cost or lower so that the enormous stocks-twice the suggested buffer norm of 162 lakh tonnes of wheat and rice for the April 1 quarter-can be cleared early to accomodate the fresh Rabi stocks in the marketing season that began in April.

Significantly, paddy procurement states Punjab and Haryana have demanded that Pusa 1121 rice variety, currently a Basmati rice, be included in the MSP regime as it requires less water and a shorter time span to mature compared to other paddy varieties. The demand was raised in the context of the CACP chairman Ashok Gulati expressing intense concern over the depleting water table in these states. He asked state government representatives to put in place urgent policies that would encourage replacement of paddy paddy with other crops like maize and pulses specially arhar.

Among those who attended were representatives of the Kisan Jagriti Manch,Bharat Krishak Samaj and the ,All India Kisan Sabha.

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com