Haryana Paddy Farmers Stand to Lose Rs 3,851 Crore Under New MSP Regime, Says SKM
A protest by Haryana farmers (File photo credit: Ground Reality)
New Delhi: The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), a collective of farmers organisations that spearheaded historic anti-farm laws agitation, on Tuesday said that paddy farmers of Haryana are bound to lose Rs 3,851 crore under new MSP (minimum support price) regime announced by Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini.
The farmers’ collective said that while it welcomed the initiative of the state government to increase the coverage of MSP from 15 crops to 24 crops, the government needed to clarify if the new announced rates matched the demand of C2+50 % , as proposed by the MS Swaminathan Commission.
P Krishnaprasad, Finance Secretary, All India Kisan Sabha, (AIKS) told NewsClick over phone, that Chief Minister Saini seemed to have toed the line of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman by announcing the MSP without any solid reasoning.
“The move is purely intended to woo farmers in favour of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the Assembly elections. Saini should have clarified if the rates represent A2 + family labour or C2 + 50%, as demanded by farmers organisations,” the AIKS leader said.
Farmer groups have maintained that the Commission on Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), the central body responsible for announcing MSP for procuring foodgrains from farmers, has been employing a wrong methodology for calculating the input costs of seeds, fertiliser, herbicides, pesticides, diesel and harvesting.
While the CACP has used A2 + FL formula, the farmers have been asking for C2+ 50% for fair returns on their produce. A2 covers major costs, such as fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides and diesel among other inputs and FL implies unpaid family labour. C2 refers to comprehensive costs, which also coves rent and forgone interest on land, apart from other traditional costs.
Prasad said the current MSP of Rs 2,300 for paddy for 2024-25 was based on A2 + FL whereas the farmers should have got Rs 3,012 per quintal as per C2+50%.
“So, a farmer is losing Rs 712 per quintal. Given the last production of 54.1 lakh tonne in the state (Haryana), farmers will lose Rs 3,851 crore. We estimate the same loss for wheat. too. Who will compensate for this loss? Please remember that the state government will procure only 25 quintals per farmer. So, the excess production will go to private markets where the prices are much lower,” he said.
In a statement, SKM said, “In the absence of legally binding procurement, farmers are forced to sell the crops as per the dictates of the intermediaries of the large corporate traders and Agri-Business Companies and face huge exploitation and loss.”
The SKM announced that that its Haryana unit meeting scheduled on August 20, 2024 would consider decisive actions to be taken to “rally farmers on the struggle path to protect their rights including MSP@C2+50% with guaranteed procurement, comprehensive loan waiver, no privatisation of power sector and prepaid smart meters and other demands including Construction of Martyrs Memorial at Singhu/Tikri Border to honour the 736 farmer martyrs sacrificed lives during the historic farmers struggle at Delhi borders and forced Modi Government to repeal the 3 Farm Acts aimed at corporatisation of agriculture.”
The SKM leaders further said that the collective would undertake village-level campaigns to ensure that farmers and people at large “Expose, Oppose and Punish BJP” in the forthcoming Assembly elections.
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