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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Reform agriculture marketing systems to address farm distress -Sudipto Mundle

Reform agriculture marketing systems to address farm distress -Sudipto Mundle

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published Published on Jul 21, 2018   modified Modified on Jul 21, 2018
-Livemint.com

The actual determination of MSP is driven by a ‘business as usual’ practice of incremental increases in line with past trend, combined with the political need for ‘look good’ optics

The recent increase in the minimum support prices (MSP) for major kharif crops has reignited the debate about food price policy. Some analysts believe that the increase has been excessive, that it will push up inflation, both directly and also indirectly via the fiscal burden of higher subsidies. Others maintain that the increase is not enough, that the government has not delivered on its promise of announcing MSPs that are 50% over cost, as had been recommended by the National Commission on Farmers (Swaminathan Commission). Who is right and who is wrong? Why do we need an agricultural price policy at all? And, most importantly, what does it all mean for the hapless farmer?

The question of why we need a food price policy is the one most easily answered. Foodgrains are basic necessities. Any sharp increase in their prices can be extremely stressful, especially for low income and poor households, leading in turn to heightened political tension. Conversely, any sharp drop in crop prices can cause widespread distress among the millions of small farmers for whom the proceeds of their marketed produce is the main source of their livelihood. Hence, the policy of maintaining relatively stable and reasonable prices has a long history going back to the Great Bengal Famine of 1943. The present food policy regime—consisting of the Food Corporation of India (FCI), which procures rice and wheat, along with some state agencies, the Commission on Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), which recommends procurement prices, and the public distribution system (PDS), which distributes foodgrains and a few other essential items at subsidized prices—was established following two consecutive drought years that led to severe food shortages in the mid- 1960s.

Next, are the recently announced kharif procurement prices too high or too low? For an answer based on principles rather than rhetoric it is necessary go into some rather arcane issues about different ways of costing agricultural production. The government has in principle adopted the policy of fixing procurement prices at least 50% over what CACP calls cost A2 + FL. A2 includes the actual or imputed cost of all purchased or own inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, manure, bullock or machine labour + actual rent on leased in land + actual interest on working capital. FL is the imputed value of family labour. Thus A2 + FL excludes the imputed value of owned fixed capital, such as farm machinery, and the rental value of own land. Adding these components would give us cost C2, the cost on which the Swaminathan Commission had recommended a 50% markup for procurement prices.

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Livemint.com, 19 July, 2018, https://www.livemint.com/Opinion/Ilo07mpwJGQBaYiPEmjKlN/Reform-agriculture-marketing-systems-to-address-farm-distres.html


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