Experts, farmers wary of restricting MSP to 7 crops

Tribune News Service

Ruchika M Khanna

Chandigarh, February 19

Farmers, agriculture experts, economists and even farm unions, other than those affiliated to the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (Non-political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Sangh, are wary of the proposal given by the Centre last night on an assured buyback on the minimum support price for additional five crops - three pulses, besides maize and cotton.

It’s Misleading

Their union has rejected the proposal. It is misleading as it gives the guarantee of the MSP on only five crops. It seems more of a diversionary tactic than any real effort to resurrect agriculture. — Sukhdev Singh Kokri Kalan, BKU (Ekta ugrahan)

Punjab farmers getting maximum benefits

The Centre is right in its assertions that Punjab farmers are getting the maximum benefit of subsidies and the MSP in the country. Crop diversification is the need of the hour. If there is assured buyback, the farmers should accept the proposal. Agri Dept officer

This is because efforts to diversify Punjab’s agriculture have gone in vain. Though there have been attempts to bring the area under cotton, maize and moong, the attempts have failed when bulk of these crops were sold at prices below the MSP.

Data collected by The Tribune from the Punjab Mandi Board shows that in 2023-24, 30 per cent of cotton was sold by farmers at below the MSP, and government agency purchased only 15 per cent of the produce. For moong, 76.56 per cent of the crop was sold at prices below the MSP. Similar is the story for maize. In Amritsar district alone, 3.21 lakh quintals of maize was sold at below the MSP.

The new proposal by the Centre, fear farmers and economists, will limit the demand of getting MSP on all crops to just five, besides wheat and rice. They also fear that the offer to enter into contracts for five years with the Central agencies like NAFED, the NCCF and the CCI is akin to bringing one of the three farm laws rejected by farmers in 2020 during the year long struggle - The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Sevices Act - back through the backdoor.

The Samyukt Kisan Morcha has rejected the proposal, saying it diluted and diverted the focal demands of farmers of getting MSP on the formula given in the Swaminathan Commission report (C2+50 per cent).

Dr MS Sidhu, economist, said though the final proposal would spell the specifics, it seemed that the government was talking of contract farming for the five crops - urad, tur, arhar, cotton and maize - on which assured buyback for five years was proposed.

“The farmers will cultivate these crops only if the returns are higher or at least as good as the returns they get on paddy farming. One has to realise that farmers are the most exposed to price volatility and uncertainty of the final outcome of their labour. This is where MSP of crops comes to the aid of farmers,” he said.

Farmer Gurbakshish Singh from Nabha too aired similar views, while rejecting the proposal. Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan, general secretary of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan), too, said their union had rejected the proposal. “The proposal is misleading as it gives the guarantee of the MSP on only five crops. It seems more of a diversionary tactic than any real effort to resurrect agriculture,” he said.

However, a top officer in the state Agriculture Department said the proposal was the only way to go forward for Punjab’s ailing agriculture.

“The Centre is right in its assertions that Punjab farmers are getting the maximum benefit of subsidies and the MSP in the country. Crop diversification is the need of the hour, if we have to make agriculture economically viable. If there is assured buyback, the farmers should accept the proposal,” he said.

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