Claiming that major Rabi crops including wheat and pulses are being purchased well below minimum support prices in agriculture produce markets (Mandis) of Madhya Pradesh, the state unit of farmers’ body Rashtriya Kisan Sangathan has called for a day-long closure of mandis on March 8.
At a press conference on Saturday, the state office bearers of RKS called upon the government to ensure that crops are not purchased below MSP in the state. They have warned of further agitation if the government fails to ensure this.
Pramjeet Singh, MP organizing secretary of the RKS said that their teams visited several mandis in the state and found that wheat was being purchased by private traders licensed by mandis at a rate between Rs 1500-1675 per quintal against the MSP of Rs 1975, while chana (chickpeas) was being purchased between Rs 4500-4800 per quintal against the MSP of Rs 5100. The government procurement of Rabi crops is to start from March 15.
“This belies the claims of the government including the prime minister that MSP will continue,” Singh said.
Later talking to THE WEEK, he said that according to statistics, only 12 per cent of paddy, about 28-30 per cent of wheat and just about 3 per cent of pulses and oil seeds were purchased through government procurement while the rest is sold out to private traders.
He said last year the MP government had claimed to purchase wheat at the highest MSP in the country at Rs 1925 per quintal, but the truth is that before 2019-20, the purchase price of wheat exceeded Rs 2000 per quintal along with the bonus. Now bonus has been done away with and basic MSP is also not available, he claimed.
Singh gave other statistics to show the losses being faced by the farmers. He said that according to the data of Commission for Agriculture Costs and Prices in 2018-19, in MP 6,24,073 farmers got benefit of MSP on chick pea crop, but in 2020-21 the number came down to mere 2,62,795.
As for red lentils, of which 68 per cent is produced by MP and Uttar Pradesh, 1,64,940 farmers in MP got benefit of MSP in 2018-19 but the figure came down to mere 1,898 in the year 2020-21. Only one farmer got MSP on red lentils in Uttar Pradesh, he said.
Singh further said that other pulses like moong (green gram) and urad (black gram) were not procured by the Madhya Pradesh government and losses faced by farmers on this count could only be imagined.
The purchase of another major Rabi crop mustard at MSP also saw a major decline. In 2019-20, a total 65,258 farmers got benefit of MSP but in 2020-21, only 42,603 farmers got the benefit - down by 35 per cent.
The organization also pointed out that despite the Supreme Court staying the implementation of farm laws, the MP government is continuing to push the ‘sauda patrak’ scheme under the new farm laws through which private traders can purchase farm produce directly from farmers through contract. State agriculture minister Kamal Patel could not be contacted for comments.