In west Uttar Pradesh, minimum support price for all crops is farmers' wish

Kamal Singh, a beneficiary of PM Kisan Nidhi, and middle-aged broker Khalid bemoan how not just farmers, but tillers and agriculture labourers have suffered after demonetisation

Stray cows and nilgais foraging on standing crops with little fear and recent rain have left Kamal Singh, a 45-year-old marginal farmer in Khair tehsil of Aligarh, distraught. It has cost him more money to harvest his entire potato crop, sown on less than half a hectare, than what he is likely to get in the market. 

Singh is a beneficiary of the PM Kisan Nidhi, under which the Centre has promised Rs 2,000 each in three instalments to farmers with less than two hectares of land. He is, however, yet to get the money since the plot of land is under the name of his father and subdivided among five of his family members. “I will get a pittance if at all it is shared,” he says. 

Singh’s expenditure in buying seeds, manure and fertiliser to sow the potato crop was nearly Rs 15,000. In addition is the money he has spent in hiring half a dozen labourers for Rs 250 a day, who would take a day and a half to harvest the crop. However, the unseasonal rainfall has meant the quality of the harvest is now poor and he is unlikely to get Rs 6,000 for the produce. 

Standing on the edge of his plot of land, the Jat farmer hails adhatiyas, or brokers, busy visiting farms on their two-wheelers to negotiate the price of the produce. 

Abdul Khalid, a middle-aged broker, stops by to look at the crop. As Singh had expected, Khalid offers Rs 200 per bag, or Rs 6,000, for the entire produce, but would pick the better quality of the heap of potatoes. “I am merely naming the price. I would not spend money to carry it to the market. This crop has lost its shine,” Khalid says. 

Singh and Khalid bemoan how not just farmers, but tillers and agriculture labourers have suffered after demonetisation. “It has become a vicious circle of taking loans for farmers and tillers, their inability to pay as the produce does not get a suitable price, and then hoping that the government would write off the loan so that they can take another loan,” Khalid says. 

Singh and Khalid have heard of the Pulwama terror attack and Balakot air strike. “But I would vote whoever promises farmers a better future,” Singh says. 

“I wish the government could announce a minimum support price for other crops as well, just as there is MSP for wheat and paddy,” he adds.