MSP hike leaves farmers & Yogendra Yadav cold

“Friends from media in Delhi are sending congratulatory messages following the Government’s announcement that Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops has been enhanced. TV anchors are calling up and asking if I am now happy,” tweeted Swaraj India leader Yogendra Yadav on Twitter on Thursday.

He went on to add, “I was at a loss for words. Lying on a charpoy in village Takri, I wondered what would be the appropriate reaction. After some deliberation I decided that they would not quite understand my reaction because we obviously live in two different worlds.”

Asserting that distressed farmers are still being forced to sell their produce below MSP, he went on to add:

“We haven’t come across even a single farmer so far who sold his Bajra produce as per last year’s MSP, ₹1425 per quintal, fixed by the government. Most of the farmers could fetch only ₹1100 per quintal. But I am getting news from Delhi that the government has hiked MSP for Bajra to ₹1950 per quintal this year. I really don’t know if I should cry or laugh.”

The post further reads: “The story of mustard seed is different. In every village only 10-15 families could sell their produce as per government approved MSP ( ₹4000). Majority of farmers were chased away from the government procurement centres. They had to sell mustard seeds at the rate of ₹3400-3500 (per quintal). Government did not purchase Barley at all.”

Modi government’s decision to hike the minimum support price (MSP) of 14 kharif (summer sown) crops for the 2018-19 marketing season has failed to enthuse farmers, it seems. Given the poor public procurement system, many experts feel that the new MSP can work only if the government ensures guaranteed procurement of all the 14 crops.

“It is not an immediate relief to farmers, it is merely a promise, the fulfilment of which depends on government procurement and intensive support, something that has been lacking till now,” Yadav was quoted as saying by IANS.

Stressing to make MSP as a legal right, he said that unless MSP is prepared as a legal right, for enforcement, it remains "discretionary" and farmers will be left at the "mercy" of the next government.

"The MSP announcements of Kharif 2018-19 is a small victory for farmers. In this election year, the Modi Government has been forced to partially act, at least on paper, on the promise of remunerative MSP that it had made before the previous election," Yadav said in a statement.

Finding flaws with the MSP announcement, he said that the announced MSP has not been "computed at 50 per cent above comprehensive cost (C2) being demanded by farmers' organisations.

"It is not the price promised by PM Modi in hundreds of election meetings and contained in the 2014 election manifesto of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)."

He said that a "historic struggle" by the farmers "forced" the government to hike Minimum Support Price (MSP) for Kharif crops, though it is "not the price" that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised before 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Drawing comparison between UPA II and NDA governments, Avik Saha, National Convenor of Jai Kisan Andolan, in a statement said: "There is nothing historic or substantial about the MSP hike - it is in fact lower than the hikes given by UPA II government, in respect of almost all crops. For paddy, while the average hike provided by the UPA II was 69%, the Modi government's hike is only 41 per cent."

“Except for Punjab, Haryana and to some extent MP, the public procurement system is not well developed. Farmers in most of India would be forced to sell their produce to private merchants at a price much below the MSP in the absence of a competitive procurement infrastructure of the state agencies. Hopefully, the Centre must have thought out some mechanism to compensate such distress sell,” Rajeev Jayaswal, wrote in an article, The proof is in implementation, carried by The Tribune.

With inputs from IANS