C R GOWRI SHANKER
May 13, 2017
Farming has become a gamble with many corps having no support price.
Hyderabad: Farmers’ woes in Telangana and across the country seem unending due to both manmade disasters and natural calamities, making agriculture a big gamble.
The crux of the problem is lack of the recommended 50 per cent profit on agricultural produce, a fixed rate for crops before harvest, facilities for storage and marketing, value addition, assured purchases, and of traders and commission agents deciding on prices and enforcing their will on hapless farmers, besides erratic weather.
Food grains and vegetables are the only commodities for which prices are fixed by traders and not by those who produce them – the farmers.
The National Commission on Farmers (NCF) headed by agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan had made several recommendations to improve the lot of the farmers, including a call to fix Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops at levels of “at least 50 per cent more than the weighted average cost of production.” These had been listed in the BJP’s 2014 Lok Sabha election manifesto and backed by every party in the Opposition including Congress.
The National Commission on Farmers (NCF) headed by agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan had made several recommendations to improve the lot of the farmers, including a call to fix Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops at levels of “at least 50 per cent more than the weighted average cost of production.” These had been listed in the BJP’s 2014 Lok Sabha election manifesto and backed by every party in the Opposition including Congress.
As per the recommendations, farmers should get returns in the ratio of 1:1.5; or a Rs 100 investment should fetch Rs 150; or a 50 per cent profit. Though the recommendations were made in 2007, this has not been acted upon by the governments.
If one looks at the MSPs of select crops in 2016-2017, approved by the cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, based on estimated production costs, the Swaminathan formula remains a mirage.
The existing MSP is a small financial support to farmers in case of a glut in the market and is far less than the actual cost of crop production.
MSP is based on the recommendations of the commission for agricultural costs and prices, which takes into account the cost of production, overall demand-supply, domestic and international prices, inter crop price parity, terms of trade between agricultural and non-agricultural sectors, and the likely effect on the price policy on the rest of economy, besides ensuring rational utilisation of production resources like land and water.
After the debt trap that led to mass suicides in 2003-2005 and earlier, nature’s fury, poor quality of seeds, fertilizers etc, un-remunerative prices since the past few years, farmers are facing now less distress due to good rain; and in 2016 were hooked to chillies.
With no remunerative price or MSP, all hell broke loose in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh this season as tonnes of chillies arrived in the market with fewer buyers. Traders fixed Rs 1,000 to Rs 6,000 as price for a quintal of chilli, depending on variety, compared to the Rs 10,000 for quality ones last year, lea-ding to protests from farmers and opposition parties. The Khammam market yard was attacked, and farmers set fire to chillies in other parts of the state, forcing the Centre to intervene.
Former civil supplies minister in undivided AP and a progressive farmer, C. Muthyam Reddy, calls chillies and cotton “dangerous and risky” crops, which can make or mar a farmer’s life.
“Chillies and cotton are risky. We need to be careful with such corps. In view of good monsoon, everyone hooked on to it. Farmers should not bank on one crop but go for multiple crops. Where there is no MSP, state should give a bonus,” Mr Reddy told this newspaper.
