Farmers’ organisations have questioned the “delay” in announcing the minimum support price (MSP) for crops of this Rabi season even as sowing has started in several States. Farmers point out that announcing the MSP is important so that farmers can select the crops that have to be sown during the season.
Shamli-based farmers leader Jitender Singh Hudda urged the Centre to implement the Swaminathan Commission formula to decide MSP that should include comprehensive input cost, including rental value of land plus 50%. “The input cost for fuels, seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, labour and transportation have increased. Agricultural instruments and their maintenance have also become costly,” Mr. Hudda said.
RSS-affiliated farmers’ outfit Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) said they were not consulted either by the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) or the Centre this time. “Earlier, there used to be two members representing farmers in the CACP. Now, there are no members representing farmers, and the MSP is calculated based on available statistics before the government,” said BKS general secretary Mohini Mohan Mishra.
All-India Kisan Sabha president Ashok Dhawale said the CACP generally sent invitations for discussion. “We placed our opinion when CACP consulted us before the Kharif sowing. However, we believe that whatever consultations held on MSP were a mere formality so far,” Dr. Dhawale said. He added that there was tremendous increase on the input price, particularly insecticides and fertilisers.
“The MSP has to be hiked a lot if some kind of a justice has to be done to the farmers. The Centre should have announced the MSP in September itself. Otherwise, how will the farmer decide what should be sown and what should not be. They should have the MSP figures before them to take a decision,” he added.
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At the time of announcing the MSP last year, a government release said that normally MSP for Rabi season was announced in October. However, in 2020, the MSP for Rabi was announced on September 23 and for the year 2022-23 it was announced on September 8, 2021.
At present, MSP for a quintal of wheat is ₹2,015 and for barley the rate is ₹1,635. For gram and lentil (in quintal) the MSP is ₹5,230 and ₹5,500 respectively. For mustard and safflower, the rate is ₹5,050 and ₹5,441 for a quintal. Though the Centre had claimed that the MSP approved for Rabi crops for 2022-23 was higher or equal to 1.5 times of cost of production, farmers’ organisations have been arguing that the rate was not enough.
