The Andhra Pradesh Rythu Sangham has expressed dissatisfaction over the Centre approving a ‘nominal’ increase in the minimum support price for various crops grown during kharif season.
Reacting to the announcement made by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, APRS State Secretary P. Jamalaiah said farmers were struggling to cope with the ever-increasing cost of cultivation on the one hand and unremunerative prices for their produce on the other. The increase in the MSP of common grade variety of paddy to ₹2,040 per quintal for the 2022-23 crop year from ₹1,940 in the previous year was disappointing, he said.
Fertiliser prices had gone up by over 50% in the last one year and the huge hike in the prices of petroleum products made farming a losing avocation. The Centre had only announced a nominal increase in MSP for 13 other kharif crops as well, he lamented.
The farmers would wage a protracted struggle to press for a MSP regime as per the formula evolved by noted agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan( cost of production plus 50%) and statutory backing for the same, he said.
