Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday hit out at the Opposition for spreading confusion over fixation of minimum support price (MSP) and assured that the decision taken in the Budget to fix MSP at least 1.5 times the production cost will include all major costs borne by farmers.
Addressing a three-day Krishi Unnati Mela 2018 in the Capital, Modi reached out to the farmer organisations by saying that many people are “spreading confusion and creating atmosphere of despair” regarding the Government’s MSP decision.
The massive farmers’ rally in Maharashtra had raised the issue of MSP among a host of other concerns, highlighting that their plight was being unnoticed by the Centre. Farmers’ unrest in Gujarat too is said to have cost the BJP dear in the Assembly elections recently.
Modi said, “The cost of production (of notified crops) will include elements such as hired labour, labour put by farmers and their family, expenses on their own or rented machinery as well as livestock, cost of seeds and fertilisers, expenses on irrigation, revenue being given to State Government, interest on working capital, and rent of leased land among others.”
This will serve the basis for calculating MSP at least one and a half times the production cost.
“This is an important decision related to income of hardworking farmers,” the PM said. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had recently said the Government will consider A2+Fl which includes paid out costs on inputs and imputed value of family labour.
However, a section of farmers’ organisations have been demanding the comprehensive cost (C2) that also includes imputed rent and interest on owned land and capital, over and above A2+Fl.
Niti Aayog member Ramesh Chand reacting to PM's speech said, “What the PM talked about was A2+Fl. He shared the components of the cost. It is a comprehensive subject and not many people know about it. The PM tried to explain in detail.”
PM Modi also emphasised on the efforts being made to link rural mandis to APMC wholesale markets to global markets as a measure to enhance farmer income.
The 2018-19 Budget envisaged 22,000 rural haats to be upgraded with necessary infrastructure and integrated with APMC and the e-NAM platform. Farmers can market their produce in a better way through Farmers Producer Organisations (FPOs), which has been exempted from income tax, on the lines of cooperative societies in the Budget, the PM said.
Stating that the farm sector is facing challenges affecting farmers' income, he said, the Government is working with a holistic approach to deal with these challenges and is committed to double farmers' income by 2022 and making their lives easier. He also appealed to farmers not to burn crop residues in order to curb pollution and urged for more oilseed production to reduce dependence on import of cooking oil and to cut urea consumption by at least half by 2022.
For the farmers' welfare, the PM said the Centre has framed many model acts and urged States to implement them. “The Government is making all out efforts to ensure that farmers get latest seeds, required electricity, do not face any problem in market access and get right prices for their produce,” Modi said.
He inaugurated the Jaivik Kheti (organic farming) portal and laid the foundation stone of 25 KVKs (Krishi Vigyan Kendras) taking the total centres to 700 in India. The Krishi Karman Award and Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhaya Krishi Vigyan Protsahan Puruskar were also given at the Mela that saw 800 stalls set up by Central and State Governments among other organisations.