Chhattisgarh’s Agriculture Minister Chandrashekhar Sahu on Monday asked Central government to raise the paddy support price up to `2100 per quintal. In his letter to Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, Sahu said that the Chhattisgarh government has drawn the attention of Central Government to the issues of inflation and increasing cost of cultivation from time-to-time.
“Even the Chief Minister Raman Singh has been advocating and demanding the hike in minimum support price since long, in larger interest of farmers,’’ an official statement of the Chhattisgarh government informed.
In his letter to Chidambaram, Minister Sahu stated that increase of only Rs 60 per quintal in the support price of paddy by Central Government is insufficient, much to the disappointment of paddy producing farmers of Chhattisgarh and of the nation as a whole.
He further stated, “on one side, the anti-farmers policies of Central Government are resulting in unexpected rise in food grain production cost and the other side, Central Government has turned blind eye to the agony of farmers and is continuing to take anti-farmers decisions one after the other. If this continues, it will become difficult to associate the new generation with the agricultural field,’’.Minister Sahu added that the paddy support price declared by Central Government is insufficient, even as it is far less than the actual cost of cultivation.
“This decision will prove to be a retrogressive step for the entire agriculture sector,’’ Sahu was quoted in the press statement. He mentioned in the letter that Chhattisgarh government is distributing about Rs. 1900 as bonus to the paddy farmers from state’s budget, so that they may at least get the return equivalent to the cost of cultivation, if not more.
Sahu said that the Central Government should reconsider its decision and send the proposal to Commission for Agriculture Costs and Prices (CACP) again, or it will prove to be unjustified. Agriculture Minister also pointed that Chhattisgarh state assembly had unanimously recommended Government of India that the minimum support price for paddy should be more than `2000. This recommendation still holds relevance and should be considered by Central Government on a serious note.