Farmers Movement Archive

Vid wheat, paddy rates show pitfalls of diluting MSP regime

Nagpur: Farmers in Punjab on the warpath against the government mainly grow wheat and paddy, and are entirely dependent on procurement by Food Corporation of India (FCI) at the minimum support price (MSP). There are fears that the new farm laws may dilute the MSP regime. This would expose the wheat and paddy farmers completely to the mercy of private traders, getting them rather low rates for their produce.Vidarbha can be a perfect example to prove their point, say traders and farm activists. Though cotton, soyabean and tur are the mainstay crops of the region, farmers having irrigation facilities also go for wheat in the Rabi season. There has been no MSP procurement of wheat in Vidarbha for last 10 to 20 years, say traders. Due to this, the rates of wheat have been substantially below the MSP.Wheat has a MSP of Rs1,975 a quintal for the current year. As against this, market rates are in the range of Rs1,400 to Rs1,600 a quintal, say traders.“Crops like cotton, soyabean and even tur are purchased on MSP by agencies but not wheat. Farmers also bring wheat to the market, which does not fetch more than Rs1,400 to 1,600 a quintal,” said Sudhir Kothari, director of the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) at Hinganghat.Atul Senad, a trader at Kalamna APMC yard, said the MSP ranges according to the grade. The market rates range from Rs1,600 to Rs1,750 at Kalamna, the largest yard in terms of area. He accepted that the price is below MSP for wheat.Senad said simply fixing the MSP cannot help farmers. Rather the government should initiate procuring also, or else the rates are likely to rule below the level.“A number of farmers who have irrigation facility do go for wheat as a second crop. This year, there are reports of farmers plucking out the cotton crop to sow wheat instead,” said Vijay Jawandhia, Shetkari Sanghathana veteranHe said traditionally the rates of wheat have been below MSP, as there is no government procurement here. If the government is not able to buy the produce at MSP, it should subsidize the expenses directly to bridge the gap, he believes.The paddy farmers of eastern Vidarbha this year are mainly depending on MSP procurement under way in the region this year.Sources in the paddy belt say farmers from pockets in Bhandara district have suffered crop losses due to floods this year. The state government is offering a bonus of Rs700 a quintal over and above the MSP of Rs1,800 a quintal. This has led to a majority of farmers going toward government procurement centres, said sources here. In Vidarbha, paddy is mainly grown in Bhandara and Gondia districts, apart from some parts of Nagpur.

The Times of India

2020-12-08

Nagpur