Paddy farmers forced to sell below floor price

The idea of a green revolution in eastern India remains distant. Millions of farmers are being forced to sell paddy below the minimum support price (MSP), due to poor procurement infrastructure.

A recent fact finding mission of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) found farmers selling produce at 25-30 per cent below the MSP in eastern Uttar Pradesh (UP), Bihar and West Bengal. The mission, the second one last year to assess MSP impact, found the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and state procurement agencies had negligible presence in large parts of eastern UP and Bihar, compelling growers to sell produce at dirt cheap rates to middlemen and wholesalers. The last mission was on wheat.

“Even in places where there are FCI centres, they don’t operate for days together, either due to lack of storage facilities or bags, which forces farmers to sell their produce at cheap rates to wholesalers and middlemen,” CACP chairman Ashok Gulati told Business Standard. These findings will be shared with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and FCI chairman Siraj Hussain.

The mission suggested leveraging services of the private sector for improving procurement by state agencies. UP, Bihar and West Bengal account for 25 per cent of all paddy produced.

Officials said paddy farmers were selling at Rs 725-800 a quintal in eastern UP and Rs 800-900 a quintal in Bihar and West Bengal. The government has fixed an MSP of Rs 1,080 a quintal for common grade rice for the 2011-12 crop season that started in July.

“This is a classic case of one arm of the government not supporting the other,” said a senior official, adding all talks of ushering in a second green revolution in eastern India would remain only in papers, if farmers were not able to get their bare minimum due.

“Both the centre and states should come together to address this issue, as blaming each other is only putting farmers in trouble,” Gulati said.

Though CACP recommends an MSP, it is a shame that it is not implemented and farmers have to suffer, according to him.