Bhubaneswar: The Central government doesn’t feel it necessary to increase the current official Minimum Support Price of Paddy so has rejected a demand in this regard.
In a reply letter to Biju Janata Dal,(BJD) the Deputy Economic Adviser in the Directorate of Economics and Statistics under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare said that the MSP fixed by the central government for paddy is “adequate” considering its cost of production in Odisha.
BJD the in-power party in Odisha is spearheading a campaign to get the MSP of paddy hiked. The Odisha assembly in March this year had unanimously authorised the state government to approach the center with the demand to fix the MSP of paddy at Rs 2930 per quintal.
However in June the center in the annual price revision fixed the MSP of paddy at Rs 1550 per quintal.
In the letter the Union Agriculture Ministry has mentioned that the fixed MSP for paddy provided adequate return over its cost of production which is Rs 1327 per quintal in Odisha as per the estimation of Commission of Agricultural Cost and Prices (CACP).
The Ministry has defended the MSP estimation procedure leaving no scope for further consideration but suggested the farmers should sell paddy in the open market.
The letter says “The objective of the Government’s price policy is to ensure remunerative prices to farmers by offering to procure their produce at MSP. However, farmers are free to sell their produce to the Government procurement agencies at MSP or in the open market as is advantageous to them”.
The Biju Janata Dal Krushak Samukhya (BJDKS) had submitted a memorandum to the President of India seeking enhancement of MSP of price of which the letter is the response by the Union Agriculture Ministry addressed to BJDKS President Rohit Pujari.
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