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| An MSP that farmers dread |
| R Krishna Das / Raipur Sep 13, 2009, 00:39 IST |
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Pulses growers in Raipur have shown a clear preference for middlemen to government procurement agencies
The minimum support price (MSP) for pulses announced by the government has completely failed to enthuse farmers to grow more of the crop. The government rate, currently at a quarter of the prevailing market price, is something that these farmers could easily do without.
RP Gaur, the branch manager of the National Agricultural Co-operative Marketing Federation (Nafed) at Raipur, admits that his agency with a mandate to procure pulses and oilseeds has not been able to get even a single grain of pulses from Chhattisgarh farmers in the last four years.
The farmers have refused to sell pulses to the government agency at a measly MSP of Rs 2,300 a quintal when mandis are offering them more than double that rate, he says.
“In the last four years, Nafed could not procure even a kg of pulse at the MSP fixed by the government,” says Gaur.
The last time Nafed could procure pulses was in 2005, that too a very small quantity, he adds.
The federation is now participating in auctions at mandis to purchase pulses from farmers. Till July 31, it had purchased about 11,000 quintals of pulses from mandis at a rate much above the MSP.
While the MSP for gram was fixed at Rs 1,700 for a quintal, farmers were selling it for Rs 2,200 in the mandis. Farmers sold arhar for Rs 5,500 to Rs 6,000 a quintal a month ago. Had they sold it to government agencies, they would have earned just about Rs 2,000 for a quintal.
“Even in the interior areas, small farmers prefer not to sell their produce to government societies even if transporting pulses to the mandis costs a lot,” Gaur says. Middlemen make their work easy by paying more than the MSP and by lifting the stock from their doorstep itself, he adds.
Prahlad Sahu, a small farmer in Kawardha district, is not worried about selling his stock. Middlemen come to him to buy the produce.
Owning about two hectares of land in Tareswar village, about 25 km from the district headquarters, Sahu produces about 16 quintals of arhar in his fields. He has got three options for selling pulses — the mandi, the middleman and the government procurement agencies. He finds the second option as the most viable.
“If I transport such a small quantity of pulses to the nearest mandi, 15 km away from my village, by paying for the transport, it will not be a viable deal,” explains Sahu. And selling the produce at the MSP to government societies would mean a huge loss for him.
So he prefers the middleman option. “The middleman comes to the village and buys pulses at a much higher price than the MSP,” Sahu says. Though the rate offered is less than what one gets at mandis, it saves Sahu the transportation cost.
Two months ago, Sahu sold his produce (arhar) for Rs 4,700 a quintal to a middleman, while the MSP was just Rs 2,000. However, other farmers managed to get Rs 5,500 for a quintal of arhar at mandis. But Sahu is happy with his deal with the middleman.
Jalesh Chandravasnshi, a farmer in the same village, says the low MSP deters farmers from selling pulses to government societies. “Middlemen first identify small farmers who cannot transport their produce to mandis, and then purchase pulses at a price that is profitable for both— themselves and the farmers,” Chandravanshi adds.
The huge gap between the MSP and the market rates is one of the main reasons why farmers have lost interest in growing pulses, say analysts.
Bhaskar Goswami, a food analyst and agricultural economist, says, “The government keeps boasting that its failure to buy pulses is a sign that farmers are getting a better price from the market. The government recently increased the MSP for arhar to Rs 2,300 from Rs 2,000, and from Rs 2,500 to Rs 2,750 for moong and urad.
However, this increase has proved too little to attract farmers,” says Goswami.
There has been a new trend of farmers moving slightly away from paddy and increasing pulses cultivation since the latter gives them better returns. Therefore, an increase in pulses output this year cannot be ruled out, he adds. Prices do count, say traders at the Hapur pulses market. There are farmers growing more pulses, thanks to the increased demand, they point out. It shows that an assured rate will definitely lead to more production, says Goswami.
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