Fixing Msp

The government would do well to fix flaws in the basic MSP structure before rolling it out for all crops.

- Joe C. Mathew

AVIK SAHA, CO-CONVENOR of Jai Kisan Andolan campaign, has had a new routine from April 3. Every day, he collects and shares the real prices farmers fetch in mandis (agricultural markets) for a crop – he monitors about 20 crops – on the social media. The “MSP (minimum support price) Alert” initiative reveals the difference between the government fixed MSP and the actual money farmers take home. The results, so far, indicate that the spot prices farmers get when they sell their produce in major mandis, across India, are much below the MSP for all the crops.

Recently, Saha and his team worked out a formula to calculate what this means for the farmers’ promised revenue at a consolidated level. For instance, they estimate that by April 5 the tur, arhar and red gram farmers of Maharashtra would have got ₹1,125 crore more than what they actually received, had their produce fetched the MSP fixed by the government. Similarly, during the March 1-April 18 period, the mustard farmers of West Bengal got ₹54.38 lakh less than what procurement at MSP rates would have fetched. “The nation needs to know and understand if farmers are being cheated and looted at agricultural markets,” says Yogendra Yadav, President, Swaraj India, the socio-political outfit that leads the Jai Kisan Andolan.

As the Modi Government plans to roll out MSP for all crops from this kharif (monsoon) season onwards, the daily reminder acts as a wake-up call for the government to correct the systemic flaws in India’s existing MSP regime. But it may not be easy.

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