The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Minimum support price for paddy inadequate: delta ryots

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Saturday, Sep 29, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Minimum support price for paddy inadequate: delta ryots

S. Vydhianathan

Government has written to Centre seeking sanction of incentive bonus for paddy

CHENNAI: Paddy farmers in the State, especially those in the delta districts, are upset over the new minimum support price fixed by the Centre.

The MSP for common variety is Rs.645 a quintal and for Grade A variety Rs.675, compared to Rs.620 and Rs.650 in the previous season (2006-07). The increase is Rs.25, which is much below their expectation.

The Centre has increased the MSP for wheat by Rs.150 a quintal compared to the last season.

The MSP, which was Rs.700 a quintal during 2006-07, has been increased to Rs.850, including Rs.100 as incentive bonus.

S. Ranganathan, general secretary of the Cauvery Delta Farmers Association, said the increase in MSP for paddy in the last four years was just 17 per cent compared to 35 per cent for wheat. The cultivation cost of paddy was Rs.9,000 to Rs.10,000 an acre and the cost of production Rs.950 to Rs.1,000 per quintal. So the MSP should be fixed at Rs.1,000.

He said over the years the cost of cultivation had increased substantially. There had been a substantial fall in the availability of agriculture labour in rural areas leading to increase in labour cost. The government had announced an incentive of Rs.100 a quintal for wheat but not for paddy.

If paddy farmers did not get a remunerative price then they had no option but to give up agriculture. He said a time would come when the Government would give incentives to paddy farmers.

Vice-president of the Special Committee for Agriculture Development K.S. Alagiri said the committee, appointed by the State Government, had submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister, United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, requesting them to fix an MSP of Rs.1,000 a quintal for paddy.

A.R. Kalyanam, general secretary of the Federation of Farmers Associations, said in 1977 the difference in MSP between paddy and wheat was only Rs.10 a quintal, which was now Rs.105 for common and Rs.75 for grade A variety.

Though there was no difference in the cost of production between the two, wheat was getting priority due to the wheat lobby. He regretted that the Tamil Nadu Government had failed to represent the paddy farmers’ case properly before the Centre.

The Tamil Nadu Government had written to the Centre requesting it to consider sanction of incentive bonus for paddy.

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