Kisan sangh demands higher MSP for Paddy
| Author: Bharatiya Kisan Sangh Date: 03 Dec 2011 19:58:01 |
7 August 2011
‘Cost of cultivation has gone up considerably’
The State unit of the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) on Saturday urged the Union Government to fix a Minimum Support Price (MSP) of Rs. 2,500 a tonne for sugarcane this financial year in view of the steep increase in the cost of cultivation.
Addressing presspersons, Mohini Mohan Mishra, National Secretary of the BKS, also asked the Government to fix Rs. 2,000 a tonne as the MSP for sugarcane for 2010-11 and direct sugar mills that had paid Rs. 1, 800 as advance, to clear the dues.
He urged the State Government to exert pressure on the Centre to hike the import duty on silk and lift the ban on its export to address the problems faced by cotton and silk farmers in the State.
Mr. Mishra also asked the Government to fix Rs. 2,000 as MSP for paddy.
Due to un-seasonal rain in West Bengal, Orissa, and Andhra Pradesh last year, paddy growers suffered heavy losses. However, he said the State and Union Governments did not come to their rescue. “This forced farmers to go for a crop holiday in nearly 1 lakh hectares in Andhra Pradesh. In Orissa, around 7 lakh ha. has been left fallow,” he said.
Mr. Sharma said recommendations of various panels, including the M.S. Swaminathan Committee, to raise the MSP for paddy to around Rs.1,600-1,800 per quintal had been put on hold. To discuss the problems faced by paddy growers in various States, the All India Paddy Growers’ Forum of the BKS held its convention here on August 5.
