New Delhi, June 3
It is election year. And after the multi-crore loan waiver bonanza for farmers, the government is all set to increase the minimum support price of paddy from Rs 750 to Rs 1,000 per quintal. With the paddy season around the corner, the news should cheer up farmers who have been demanding an enhanced MSP for the crop to make its cultivation economically viable for them.
Officials say the increase in paddy price has been recommended by the Commission for Agriculture Cost and Prices (CACP) and will now be taken up by the Cabinet. Agency reports emerging from Patna also quoted minister for state for consumer affairs Akhilesh Singh as saying that the MSP of paddy will be increased to Rs 1,000 per quintal for the next season.
Farmers have been demanding a better MSP for paddy. In fact, giving scientific calculations of cost of production for the crop in the forthcoming kharif, farmers from Punjab had recently demanded an MSP of Rs 1,620 per quintal in view of increasing cost of production. Since the plantation of paddy is about to begin, the Centre’s announcement for a support price to match that of wheat is designed to encourage more farmers to go in for paddy instead of lucrative cash crops.
In a memorandum submitted to agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, the Punjab farmers had calculated their expenditure for a 10-acre farm, irrigated by a 15 BHP tubewell, where the level of groundwater was 60 feet or more. The figure they had arrived was Rs 35,155 as total expenses for one acre, including managerial cost and profit and an interest of 12 per cent per annum for six months on all expenses given in the list. Their expenditure list includes heads like expenses for seed and nursery, fertiliser for nursery, land preparation and plantation, fertilisers and weedicides, irrigation charges, harvesting and marketing, permanent labour cost and other miscellaneous expenses.
This year, the government expects the rice production to hit an all time high. The Department of Agriculture and Cooperation in its third advance estimates of production of major crops grown in the country estimated that a total of 227 million tonnes of foodgrain will be produced.
Out of this 95.68 million tonnes of rice, 76.78 million tonnes of wheat and 39.67 million tonnes of coarse cereals (jowar, bajra and maize) will be produced. As compared to 2006-07, the production of wheat will be one million tonnes over last year while that of rice is estimated to increase by about 2 million tonnes.
The government wants the feel-good situation to continue in the next fiscal as well. The world over there is a shortage of foodgrain and the government hopes to overcome the situation in India by increasing area under rice cultivation with better incentives for farmers.
Better production means that rice situation in the country will ease. Fighting inflation, the Centre has also prohibited the export of basmati and non-basmati rice due to apprehensions that the rice production could be less and price of the foodgrain increase. The government has also withdrawn export incentives on basmati rice.
