PM Modi Promises MSP 50% Over Cost Of Production For Farmers

Prime Minister Modi, during his interaction with the delegates of farmers from five states on Friday, June 29, promised a stable mechanism to ensure timely payments to them.

The PM addressed the farmers, led by union minister Satyapal Singh, who is also MP from Baghpat and former union minister Sanjeev Balyan, MP from Muzaffarnagar for about 40 minutes on the agricultural policies of the government. The meeting was held at the official residence of PM Modi, 7, Lok Kalyan Marg in National Capital.

Farmers to get 50 per cent over the Cost of Production

About 100 farmers who had participated in the meeting, came from 5 states of India – Punjab, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. In a bid to make the policies beneficial for the farmers, the Prime Minister reiterated his government’s resolve to ensure Minimum Support Price (MSP) 50 per cent over the cost of production to the farmers and double their income by 2022.

PM Modi also spoke about the other steps taken by his government to overhaul the sugarcane sector including the bailout package of Rs 8,500 crore to clear cane arrears and a soft loan of Rs 4,500 crore.

The PM’s meeting with sugarcane growers comes amidst various protests held by farmers demanding adequate price for their produced crop including the long-standing issues of non-payment of dues by sugar mills.

“Our government is committed to the farmers, and we will ensure each one of them gets their dues cleared in time, we will not spare any sugar mill which goes against the norms,” Sanjeev Balyan told India Today.

“The Prime Minister announced that the Union cabinet would approve the implementation of minimum support price of 150% of the input cost, in its forthcoming meeting, for the notified crops of Kharif season 2018-19,” the government said in a statement.

PK Joshi, South-Asia Director of International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), told Business Standard, “I think it is a much-awaited decision (on MSP) and should be good for farmers. As far as the impact of high inflation on farmers is concerned, I don’t think it would have any impact, because, in wheat and rice, PDS operations act as a buffer against rising prices and also in other crops, too it won’t push up wholesale prices.”

Relief on FRP

Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought relief to farmers by affirming that a Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) for the forthcoming sugar season of the 2018-19 crop would be announced in two weeks, as reported by The Hindu. The sugar season starts in October.

This FRP will not only be higher than that of 2017-18 but also incentivise those farmers whose recovery from sugarcane will be more than 9.5%. Notably, the sugarcane FRP for 2017-18 was Rs 255 quintal, Rs 25 more than the previous year’s.

This meeting is also seen as a move to address rising rural unrest with an eye on the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Earlier in May, a sugarcane farmer in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat had lost his life just a day before PM Modi’s rally in the region. The 58-year-old had collapsed and died while taking part in a protest over non-payment of dues by sugar mills and an increase in power tariffs.

India is the second largest producer of sugar in the world. The country is also the biggest consumer. The sugar production is estimated to touch a record 32 million tonnes in the 2017-18 marketing year (October-September), against 20.3 million tonnes output in the previous year.

Also published on Medium.