Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | The limits of MSP -Ashok Gulati & Tirtha Chatterjee

The limits of MSP -Ashok Gulati & Tirtha Chatterjee

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Jul 24, 2018   modified Modified on Jul 24, 2018
-The Indian Express

Instead of fiddling with procurement prices, government must devise an income policy for farmers.

Speaking at the 37th foundation day celebrations of the NABARD, Arun Jaitley gave food for thought to the audience when he said, “If there is any area in the economy where we can give an example to the world and to ourselves of cooperative federalism, it is the agriculture sector. It can benefit people more than what GST has done”. Coming from a political leader who had steered GST to its conclusion, Jaitley’s recommendation is not only commendable but worth implementing. We may add a footnote that similar coordination is needed amongst Union ministries that deal with agriculture, food, food processing, fertilisers, water, rural development and trade. This will enable a holistic approach to agriculture and farmers’ incomes. The process can start with the creation of an agri-council/cabinet.

The need for such coordination was also echoed in the recently released OECD-ICRIER (2018) report on “Agricultural Policies in India”. This should involve a focus on long overdue agri-marketing reforms and revisiting the Essential Commodity and APMC Acts to “get the markets right”. The Atal Bihari Vajpayee government tried to usher in such reforms through the model APMC Act, 2003. It would be fitting that the Narendra Modi government completes the unfinished agenda of these reforms. Getting the markets right will ensure better and stable prices to farmers, as well as consumers, and also augment farmers’ incomes in a sustained manner.

But the Modi government has taken a different path. It has increased the MSPs of 14 kharif crops to at least 50 per cent above paid out costs of farmers, including the imputed cost of family labour (Cost A2+FL). There is no economic rationality in fixing MSPs at 50 per cent plus cost A2+FL. This MSP is purely a “political price,” keeping in mind the coming elections. On a lighter note, the MSP of soybean at Rs 3,399 per quintal and that of ragi at Rs 2,897 per qunintal evoke comparison with the prices of Bata shoes. What is surprising is that a professional advisory body, the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), has toed the government line. It has bypassed its own terms of reference (ToR) that require it to look at demand and supply, domestic and international prices, costs, inter-crop price parity, etc while recommending MSPs. Many a times, the government of the day overrules the CACP’s recommendations and announces a “political price”. This is routinely done in the case of sugarcane, where the CACP recommends Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP), but states like Uttar Pradesh announce a much higher state-advised price. Such misadventures lead to mounting arrears for cane farmers and make the sugar industry vulnerable.

Please click here to read more.

The Indian Express, 23 July, 2018, https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/msp-kharif-crops-narendra-modi-minimum-support-price-gst-farmers-5270286/


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close