Farmers Concerned About Food Security, Farming Practices and Government Policies— An Overview

Abstract

The ongoing farmer’s agitations foremost demand is “the written assurance from the Indian government that it will not scrap the minimum support price (MSP) regime and will continue to procure rice and wheat from them. The farmers biggest worry is that the law would lead to inadequate demand for their produce in the local markets. This is largely because they have survived on the selling of wheat and paddy on MSP procured by the union government for the central pool.”

Paddy is being sown in the season when pulses and other high value crops can also be sown. The problem currently is that farmers need the assurance of an MSP. They feel they would be left in the lurch if they agreed to grow for alternate crops a would loose the security of the already prevalent crop cycle of wheat and paddy even through it was providing to be a loos making proposition.

It is lamentable that the “state lacks a successful procurement model for crops other than wheat and paddy for instance, the Maize crop. Farmers sowing maize in February and March had to sell their produce between Rs. 800 and 900 per quintal, which was reportedly far below the declared Minimum Support Price (MSP) of Rs 1,850 per quintal. In Rajpura Mandi of Patiala maize was sold at a price as low as Rs 600 per quintal. The Sunflower crop also met with the same fate as farmers in Patiala and nearby districts got Rs 3,500-4,000 per quintal for their crop, which was far below the promised MSP of Rs 5,885 promised MSP.”