Around 2,500 farmers assembled in the market area of Gulbarga district in Karnataka to demand Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for their crops on March 5, 2021, Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS) Honorary President Chamarasa Mali Patil told SabrangIndia.

Following the Samyukt Kisan Morcha’s (SKM) call for an ‘MSP Dilao Abhiyan,’ a delegation headed to Karnataka to put Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s verbal assurances of support prices for farm produce to the test. However, SKM leader Yogendra Yadav, Punjab farmer leader Satnam Ajnala, Haryana leader Deepak Lamba and others found that the market rates at Gulbarga mandi on Friday remain short of MSP.

Interactions at the market revealed that chana is sold at Rs. 4,800 per quintal even though its MSP is Rs. 5,100 per quintal. Maize crop is sold at Rs. 1,500 per quintal as against MSP of Rs. 1,850 per quintal. Similarly, jowar and moong crops are sold at Rs. 1,800 to Rs. 2,000 per quintal and Rs. 6,000 to Rs. 6,500 per quintal respectively even though their MSP stands at Rs. 2,620 per quintal and Rs. 7,200 per quintal.

“We ask the government where is the MSP they had promised us? This programme will now spread out to all other parts of India to demand fair prices for farmers,” said Mali Patil after a three-hour meeting called by farmer leaders. Many women farmers were present during the meeting to demand fair prices for their produce.

The KRRS official confirmed that on March 6, farmer leaders will visit markets in Ballari district, and then assemble at Bengaluru on March 7 to have a meeting with local farmer leaders. Meanwhile, protests and agitations will continue in other parts of India such as the KMP highway blockade on Saturday.

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The Kerala’s government’s latest decision to set base prices for 16 agricultural produce is sure to benefit farmers, but the benefits may not extend to plantation farmers, said General secretary of self-help group Kerala Farmers Federation Joshy Joseph Manniparampil on October 23, 2020.

On October 21, the Ministry of Agriculture announced its plan to determine the Minimum Support Price of 16 varieties of fruits, vegetables and tubers that are widely produced across the state. This is a first-of-its-kind policy approved in India.

Commending the decision, Manniparampil said, “The new base prices are beneficial for Kerala farmers because the cost of production, especially input cost, is high in the state because of the high wages. However, the scheme won’t benefit plantation farmers like those of rubber and tea.”

Project Director Abdulla Hashim of the Vegetable and Fruit Promotion Council Keralam (VFPCK) said that the scheme will help benefit small and marginal farmers with upto two hectares or five acres of land per crop per season. “This is basically a risk management scheme to protect farmers in the event of price fall,” he said.

Yet, as Manniparampil pointed out, a lot of marginal farmers in Kerala are engaged in rubber farming. He estimated that about 75-80 rubber is produced by marginal farmers. Moreover, he said they suffered a lot due to the pandemic because of a dearth in buyers.

Interestingly, there continues to be a demand for latex gloves yet the raw material is not being sold.

“This is a problem because rubber farmers can’t switch to other crops like regular farmers can,” he said.

However, he went on to say that the state government did seem sympathetic to the plight of plantation farmers. He remembered that two years ago, they tried to set the base price of rubber at Rs. 150 per kg but could not sustain it for longer than a year.

“A possible reason why plantation farmers haven’t been covered because there’s a shortage of funds. The state doesn’t seem to be getting funds from the central government. If a base price is set for rubber it should be around Rs. 175 per kg,” he said.

Nevertheless, the new policy has been celebrated by farmers organisations for its pro-marginal-farmer approach. Even the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) praised the state government’s move in a press release. They stated that the new base prices as well as procurement of paddy at Rs.2,750 per quintal which is about Rs.900 per quintal more than the centrally fixed MSP assures remunerative prices through cooperatives.

The per-kilogram prices of the products will be as follows: Rs. 12 for tapioca, Rs. 30 for Nendran banana and Rs. 24 for Wayanadan Nendran, Rs. 15 for pineapple, Rs. 9 for ash gourd, Rs. 8 for cucumber, Rs. 30 for bitter gourd and snake gourd, Rs. 34 for string beans, Rs. 8 for tomato, Rs. 20 for ladies’ finger, Rs. 11 for cabbage, Rs. 21 for carrot and beetroots, Rs. 20 for potato, Rs. 28 for beans and Rs. 139 for garlic.

Hashim explained that this meant any farmer who receives prices lower than the base price for these 16 crops, will have the deficit amount directly transferred to their bank account.

Although he foresaw market glut situations to pose a challenge in marketing the agricultural products, he assured that the three central laws won’t affect this policy or Kerala’s farmers because the state does not have an APMC law.

“Majority farmers of Kerala are small and marginal with small land holdings. There is no contract farming by big corporates in Kerala,” he said.

He also pointed out that Kerala farmers fared better than most professions during the lockdown period thanks to such support schemes by the government.

These prices will come into effect from November 1 and are calculated to address the problem of price fluctuation in the market. The amounts were determined at production cost plus 20 percent based on a study conducted by the State Agricultural Prices Board. Moreover, the government also included a per-hectare productivity limit to prevent any misuse of the scheme.

According to Agriculture Minister V. S. Sunil Kumar, this “historic decision” of the state Cabinet satisfies the greatest demand of farmers – to get a reasonable price for their products – deprived of which, impoverished farmers often turn to extreme measures. He also mentioned that the government decided to store vegetables through 559 centres.

“When the central government is moving forward with anti-farmer policies, the state government is moving forward by creating a model to protect the farmers, it is because there is no protest by throwing farmer suicides or products on the streets. This government has always tried to implement alternative models from the people’s party,” he said in a Facebook post.

https://www.facebook.com/advvssunilkumar/posts/1198232350563987

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