States seeking up to 70% hike in Rabi MSP

20 Jun 2011 Evaluate

Four of India’s major agricultural states have sought up to 70% increase in the minimum support price (MSP) of Rabi, or the winter-sown crop, saying the hike was needed to cover the growing input costs of farmers. The states were utterly disappointed with the 8% increase in MSP of Kharif, or summer-sown crop, announced by the Centre last week. Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra and Karnataka raised the demand at a meeting of stakeholders convened by the Commission on Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) in Delhi. MSP is the floor the government sets to protect the farmers from market volatility.

Among the states, Maharashtra demanded the biggest raise in MSP of wheat at Rs. 2,070 per quintal. While Uttar Pradesh sought a support price of Rs. 1,800 per quintal, Haryana and Karnataka demanded an MSP of Rs. 1,500 and Rs. 1,600, respectively. Last October, the Centre had increased wheat support price by only Rs. 20 a quintal to discourage procurement, as it battled a huge pile of inventories at its granaries. The marginal raise was also seen as an attempt to contain the government’s growing food subsidy burden.

The states also urged the Centre to lift the four-year-old ban on export of wheat, arguing that the bountiful harvest expected this year would not allow the local prices to rise at all. Representatives of state governments and farmers’ organizations who attended the meeting are understood to have criticized the Centre's decision to raise the MSP for paddy by only 8% even though the CACP had recommended a nearly 16% hike over last year’s support price to offset the rising input costs of farmers.

Sowing for Kharif is currently on and likely to pick up pace by July when monsoon is expected to hit northern and western India. These demands come at a time when the MSP regime for staples, like wheat and rice, is being widely perceived as a failure. The Centre has contributed to the mess by not opening the exports of grains. Its failure to clear the grain silos of excess stocks has also added to the problem, as there is no room to store the Rabi harvest, which began arriving in the markets in April.

At the meeting, the two leading paddy procurement states of Punjab and Haryana sought inclusion of Pusa 1121 variety of rice into the MSP regime. This variety is at present considered Basmati rice. The two states argued that Pusa 1121 requires less water and time to mature as compared with other paddy varieties.

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