Centre to study Karnataka's agri-dash board model

The Centre has decided to study Karnataka's latest agri-dashboard model that indicates if mandi prices of crops are ruling below the minimum support price (MSP), so that the government can make timely intervention to protect interest of farmers, a senior state government official said Thursday.

The agri-price analysis dashboard, which the Karnataka government launched in July known as KRIPA, provides analysis of whether spot prices are ruling below MSP and also forecasts rates for next three months.

"In a meeting with the Union Agriculture Ministry officials Wednesday, our dashboard was discussed in detail. The centre has in-principally agreed to study it and see if it can pursue with other states to implement," agri-price advisory body Karnataka Agricultural Prices Commission Chairman T N Prakash Kammardi told reporters here.

The dashboard provides prices prevailing in 176 Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) mandis in Karnataka, the arrival and sale of crops as per varieties among other details on a daily basis, he said.

"Based on this data, the government can quickly decide whether it has to intervene in the market immediately and start procurement at the MSP and save farmers from distressed sale," he added.

Recently, the state government had submitted a proposal before the central government for timely procurement of green gram at MSP based on this data.

Kammardi said, earlier there used to be delay in the MSP procurement in Karnataka in the absence of timely details about price crash in crops from district headquarters.

Declaring MSP alone is not important, it is necessary to ensure farmers get it. There is a strong mechanism to buy wheat and rice in the country. The dashboard will help to ensure MSP to farmers for other crops, he added.

The state official said that the Centre's recently approved market assurance scheme, price deficiency payment and private procurement will go a long way in ensuring MSP to farmers.