The Centre should declare Rs 4,000 per quintal as minimum support price for rabi jowar, a prominent farmers' leader from Maharashtra said here today.
"The state government has asked for Rs 3,202 as minimum support price for rabi jowar. We feel it should be Rs 4,000," former president of Shetkari Sanghatana Pasha Patel said.
"Since the formation of the Commission for Agriculture Costs and Prices (CACP) in the 60s, there has been no MSP declared for rabi jowar, which is grown in seven states including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan," Patel said.
Patel, a former state BJP legislator, put forward the demand at a meeting with CACP chairman Ashok Gulati in Delhi yesterday.
"We also met Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar in Delhi and requested him to take the initiative in declaring MSP for rabi jowar, which is grown on 22 lakh hectares land in Maharashtra," Patel said.
The government declared Rs 1,500 as MSP for kharif jowar last year and has maintained the same this year as well, Patel said. "Similarly, we have demanded that there be a support price for rabi jowar too," he said.
