 "There were long drawn farmer protests in 2020 demanding legalising minimum support price (MSP) and that demand appears to have regained momentum recently. Notwithstanding formal legalisation, MSP continues to remain at the core of the discourse on r")
The trade shutdown declared by commodity traders and dal (pulses), oil and spices mills has been postponed until March 23, a member of Rajasthan Khadya Padarth Vypar Sangh, a trade association leading the agitation, said.
All the 247 commodity (mandis) markets and dal mills in the state had declared a shutdown from February 24 demanding the government to abolish the Krishak Kalyan Fee and the mandi tax of 1.60 per cent on agricultural commodities coming from outside the state. Presently, the state levies 0.5 per cent tax under Krishak Kalyan, which is projected to increase to one per cent.
On February 22, crops, mainly wheat and mustard, in some regions, including Alwar, Bharatpur and Churu, were damaged due to rains and hailstorm.
Babulal Gupta, president of the trade association, said that in the last seven days since the shutdown, traders of the state suffered a loss of ₹11,000 crores.
Gupta said that recently a detailed discussion was held with Rajasthan’s agricultural marketing director Rajesh Chauhan on the demand letter.
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“The director approved the resolution of half the demands in the meeting itself and assured that all the demands will be sympathetically reviewed and resolved. On this assurance and given the hailstorm in the state, we have decided to call off the strike so that the agricultural produce of the farmers does not get spoiled,” Gupta said.
Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma has already asked the district collectors to assess the damage caused to crops by the hailstorm in the affected districts.
He also directed the principal secretary of the Revenue Department to carry out a quick survey in the affected districts to assess the crop damage.
“We, the representatives of commodity markets and dal, oil and spices mill owners have unanimously decided that given the assurance of the agricultural marketing director and the talks held with forest minister Sanjay Sharma and minister of state for home Jawahar Singh Bedham, to postpone the trade shutdown till March 23 and to meet the chief minister by March 7 and get the problems resolved,” Gupta said.
They were also asking that the commission on millets be increased to 2.25 per cent from 1 per cent.
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 "wheat msp agriculture")
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