The mere increase of Rs 200 per quintal of paddy is not acceptable to farmers as it is too less in comparison to the actual production cost involved. Pradesh Congress Committee president Niranjan Patnaik stated this and alleged that he doubts if farmers producing different food grains would get the increased MSP as the Food Corporation of India (FCI) only procure rice and wheat from the State Government. Besides, the Government agencies procure a part of the produce as they have shortage of godowns to store the food trains, alleged Patnaik.
Presenting a comparative data, Patnaik mentioned that the country produced around 146 million tonnes of paddy every year between 2010-11 and 2014-15 and 147 MT paddy in 2015-16. In 2015-16, the Government hiked MSP for paddy by Rs 50 per quintal. Government agencies procured around 43 MT of paddy that year, which accounted for 29 per cent of the total paddy produced. likewise, 152.4 MT of paddy was produced in 2016-17 in which year the Government hiked MSP by Rs 60 per quintal and its agencies procured 46 MT paddy (30.18 per cent of total production). In 2017-18, a total of 156.12 MT of paddy was produced and 52 MT (33 per cent of total) were procured by Government agencies. The MSP was hiked by Rs 80 per quintal that year.
These figures indicates that all farmers are not getting MSP fixed by the Union Government, said Patnaik.
“Besides, Government agencies only procure paddy and wheat in MSP. But lakhs of tonnes of all other agriculture produces like oil seed, potatoes, onion, sugarcane, vegetables are being sold as per market determined prices. Hence, farmers are bound to sell their produce at much lower prices than the MSP,” pointed out Patnaik. Stating the Government agencies have no sufficient godowns to store the food grains, he demanded that the Government should take steps to make available sufficient storage facilities for agri produce and facilitate farmers get the genuine cost of their produce.