High retail tag no relief for pulses growers

THE OTHER INDIA

Pulses

last year

price now

MSP

urad

2600

2200

1700

moong

2700

2200

1700

arhar

2700

2200

1550

masoor

2700

2300

1500

chana

2700

2200

1500

(Fin Rs per quintals)

 T Haque, former chairperson of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), said: "The pulses growers needs better prices and sufficient incentives to increase yield. There is not much supply in the world to be imported. Hence, increasing productivity is the only way forward." The MSP can't help as there is hardly any government procurement of pulses, Haque admits.  "Why should the farmer grow more and reap more losses?" says Vijay Jaiwanthia, a spokesperson of farmers in suicide-prone Wardha district of Maharashtra.  In Wardha, prices of chana or gram fell by Rs 500 a quintal last month from Rs 2,700 to Rs 2,200. Soya prices fell by Rs 350 a quintal from Rs 2,300 to Rs 1,950, tuvar or pigeon pea fell by Rs 400 a quintal and groundnut by Rs 400.  To help farmers, the CACP has recommended 30-42 per cent rise in the MSP. This is in line with the recommendation of the MS Swaminathan-led National Commission for Farmers that the MSP for all farm products should be raised so that a farmer can reap 50 per cent profit, up from the 15 per cent he earns at present.  Anti-inflation measures like raids on traders are also wreaking havoc on prices. Jaiwanthia and a team of farmers told Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh last week that traders were refusing to buy due to the fear of raids over violation of stockholding limits. "Hence farmers are resorting to distress sale of pulses," he says.