Karnataka - Gulbarga   

Farmers term MSP for red gram unscientific

GULBARGA: The repeated pleas of the farmers’ organisations to the Union Agriculture Ministry and the Central Agriculture Commodity Pricing committee for adopting scientific formula for fixing the minimum support price (MSP) for red gram appears to have fallen on deaf ears.

This year also, the government has fixed the MSP for red gram at Rs. 1,550 a quintal, which is nowhere near the actual expenditure involved in the production of the produce by farmers.

The MSP fixed by the government for red gram also does not follow the recommendations made by the National Agriculture Commission headed by M.S. Swaminathan. The commission had said that the MSP fixed by the government should be at least 50 per cent more than the waited average cost of production and the net take home income of farmers should be in comparable to those of civil servants.

Karnataka Red Gram Growers’ Association president Basavaraj Ingin told The Hindu that the MSP announced by the Union Government for the pulses for the year 2007-08 exposed the unscientific way in which the MSP was being fixed.

Mr. Ingin said that the MSP fixed for the green and black gram which were 90-day crops was much more than the MSP fixed for red gram, which was a six- month crop and the expenditure involved by farmers to cultivate black and green gram was very less when compared with that of red gram.

He said that the Union Government had fixed MSP for black and green gram at Rs. 1,700 a quintal and other pulses at Rs. 1,445 a quintal. The cost of any agriculture commodity was based on various factors, including the land and its rent, cost of labour, cost of the agriculture implements, bullocks, seeds, fertilizer and pesticides.

In addition to this, the periodical interest on the investments for purchase of bullocks, agriculture implements, cost of animal feed and the interest of the loans availed by the farmers to take up the cultivation of an agriculture crop should be taken into consideration at the time of fixing the MSP, Mr. Ingin said.

According to Mr. Ingin, the cost of cultivation of red gram per hectare was around Rs. 25,000 and the average production of red gram per hectare was six quintals.

The MSP fixed by the Government for red gram should be in commensuration of the cost of cultivation with little profit margin for the farmer to survive, he added.

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Farmers term MSP for red gram unscientific

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