The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Centre urged to fix MSP for paddy on a par with wheat

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 20, 2007
ePaper

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Centre urged to fix MSP for paddy on a par with wheat

Chief Minister takes up the issue with Manmohan Singh

HYDERABAD: Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy has urged the Centre to fix a minimum support price for paddy on a par with wheat with effect from this kharif as the present price fixed for the two crops is ‘highly discriminatory’ and ‘without a rational basis’.

While the MSP for wheat has been fixed at Rs. 850, it is only Rs. 620 in case of common variety and Rs. 650 in case of fine grade for paddy. Though the Government enhanced the MSP for paddy to Rs. 645 for common variety and Rs. 675 for fine grade variety, this was yet Rs. 175 less than what was fixed for wheat in the previous season.

Unless this anomaly was removed and the MSP for paddy enhanced to the level of wheat with immediate effect, there was a ‘danger’ of paddy farmers migrating to crops like maize. “Such a situation will defeat the objective of National Food Security Mission which aims at an increase in rice production by 10 million tonnes in the next four years,” the Chief Minister said in a letter addressed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday.

Moreover, the cost of production of paddy was more than that of wheat as it would require more water additional labour charges on transplanting and de-weeding and higher expenditure on pesticides. Unlike in case of wheat, the net global tradable surplus of rice was below 10 million tonnes and therefore, any reduction or fall in the levels of production of rice would lead to a great crisis.

Naidu writes to PM

Telugu Desam party president N. Chandrababu Naidu also appealed to the Central Government to increase the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for paddy and bring it on par with that of wheat.

In a letter sent to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mr. Naidu said there was need for raising the MSP for paddy to ensure a reasonable margin for the farmer and protect him from trade manipulations.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail