THE FARCE IN THE NAME OF REMUNERATIVE PRICES

The central Government announced  Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for Kharif crops, 2010-11 on June 8, 2010.

But the announcement of MSP does not take into account the increase in input costs especially the increase in prices of urea and fertilisers like MOP and DAP as well as increase in petrol and diesel prices. Farmers have been forced to pay extremely high prices for DAP and MOP after the decontrol of prices under the Nutrient Based Subsidy Regime. The MSP announced does not provide any additional incentive to the farmers to cultivate the crops.

“Far from meeting the consistent demands of farmers for remunerative prices, the government has  refused to fix prices anywhere near the C2+50 per cent suggested by the National Commission on Farmers headed by Dr M S Swaminathan.

“The MSP of Paddy (Common) has been fixed at Rs 1000 per quintal and of Paddy (Grade A) at Rs 1030 per quintal, which represents an increase of merely Rs 50 per quintal over the last year’s MSP.  Former’s Organisations like All India Kisan Sabha AIKS demanded Rs 1500 per quintal and Rs 1600 per quintal for Paddy (Common) and Paddy (Grade A) respectively. The State ofKerala is already providing Rs 1200 per quintal for Paddy (Common) along with other production incentives as well as effective procurement.

“Another crop for which the government has announced the MSP with much fanfare is Arhar (Tur) for which it has been fixed at Rs 3000 per quintal. It is notable that the Karnataka Tur Board has come forward to procure at Rs 4000 per quintal which was the proposal placed by the Kisan Sabha at the CACP meeting. The increase in MSP of other pulses like Moong and Urad is also far below the expectations of the farmers who grow it under extreme conditions in arid/semi-arid regions of India. It has to be noted that even if India has taken conservative estimate of the prices of pulses in the market ranging from Rs 80/kg to Rs 100/kg it would amount to Rs 8000/quintal to Rs 10,000/quintal. Farmers are being given merely Rs 3000 per quintal while the traders and corporate sector rakes in super profits at the expense of consumers including farmers who are net buyers.

“Unfortunately the government also has not paid any heed to the demands for remunerative prices for coarse cereals produced by largely small and marginal farmers as well as tribals. No effective procurement also takes place. Ironically there is also no increase at all in prices of cotton from 2008-09 onwards despite the fact that exorbitant input costs and unremunerative returns for cotton farmers has been the single largest cause of suicides in Vidarbha, parts of Andhra Pradesh and other places.”

it will be worthwhile to compare the MSP announced with the Kisan Sabha proposals that were arrived at by a realistic assessment of Costs of Production and reasonable pricing to provide incentive to farmers and leave them with some investible surplus to carry on with cultivation in the next season. (see accompanying table)

for more reading. .

• NUTRIENT BASED SUBSIDY POLICY FOR FERTILIZER SECTOR
• MSP FOR KHARIF CROPS ANNOUNCED TUR MSP RAISED TO RS 3000; ADDITIONAL INCENTIVE ON PULSES’ MSPS
• AGRICULTURAL CRISIS AND FARMERS SUICIDES
• DECONTROLING PRICES OF FERTILISERS
• NEED FOR CAUTION ON FERTILIZERS
• SUBSIDY ON FERTILIZERS
• FERTILEZER CONSUMPTION AND SUBSIDY IN INDIA
• FERTILIZER PRICE RISE & EFFECT ON AGRICULTURE – Nishith Chowdhury
• INCREASE IN APM GAS PRICE LEADS TO RISE IN POWER, FERTILIZER PRICES
• THE ISSUES OF SUGARCANE GROWERS – N K Shukla
• THE BITTER STORY OF SUGARCANE PRICE FIXING