DNA Edit: Raising the floor on rabi crops for farmers

Even as the Kisan Sangharsh Jatha, the farmers’ nationwide march, heads towards the capital for a rally on November 24, organised under the aegis of the All India Kisan Sabha, the government has proactively looked into the issue of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for rabi crops for the forthcoming year. The issue was one of the demands that the farmers had listed as a priority. The gap between the MSP and the ever-rising consumer price has been a bone of contention for farmers who have feared that the government is looking to corporatise factory-style farming to which they would forever remain unwilling victims. 

However, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Wednesday gave its approval to the increase in MSP for rabi crops for the 2016-2017 season. The Committee, chaired by the Prime Minister, also decided to incentivise the production of pulses and oil seeds. A bonus is to be paid on those crops over and above the MSP. Bonuses of Rs 200 per quintal for gram, Rs 150 for lentils and Rs 100 each for rapeseed, mustard and safflower have been announced over and above the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) which generally sets the bar. 

The announcement was met with much joy and rightly so. MS Swaminathan, architect of the Green Revolution and chair of the National Commission of Farmers hoped that the government would ultimately push to setting the MSP at C2 + 50 per cent, (C2 being the cost of production) as per his prior recommendations. Given that we are largely a country of farmers with small holdings who are able to procure only a limited marketable surplus, increasing the MSP is the only way in which farmer profits are likely to improve. 

With this move, the government is also signalling the rising importance of food self-sufficiency. There is a widening gap between domestic demand and supply of pulses and oilseeds as a result of which we are highly reliant on imports. The focus is now on domestic production. These environmentally-hardy crops enrich the soils and consume less water. 

This comes in the backdrop of bonuses for kharif pulses, seasmum, groundnut, soyabean and nigerseed; the ‘Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana’ crop insurance scheme and mobile app, and a pan-India electronic trading platform ‘National Agriculture Market’ (NAM) to integrate 585 regulated markets, with a single licence and market fee across 221 markets in 11 states. In the last Budget, farmers were promised double incomes in five years. It’s a welcome step closer to that end.