Page 29 - Tehelka Issue 15 August 2018

AGRICULTURE

Revising A steep hike in Minimum Support Price of Kharif crops recently

announced by the Government at Centre and subsequent
MSP for rhetoric by the NDA and its alliance partners has set-off
many questions, writes KOMAL AMIT GERA
crops not here are some puzzling questions pertaining to the recent hike in Min-
imum Support Price of Kharif crops set by the government. The im-
portant questions which every stakeholder of the agrarian sector has
in their minds are: Is it a bona fide effort by the ruling government to
enough T mitigate the prevailing crisis in agriculture? Is the formula adopted to
reckon the revised Minimum Support Price (MSP) of 14 crops based on the rec-
ommendations of MS Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations? Does the
to revive government have men and machinery to actually procure crops other than wheat
and paddy? Do we actually have the scientific storage capacity to accommodate
the crops classified under the revised price regime? Do the thanksgiving rallies
organised by the political outfits and addressed by the Prime Minister Narendra
Modi actually evince the sentiments of the farmers over the price hike of certain
crops? Is the euphoria created over MSP hike real or designed? The list can be
agriculture infinite. Nevertheless, the most perturbing question is whether MSP regime is rel-
sector icy and exposed farmers to international market. The Indian farmers, who were
evant in the post-liberalisation era?
India opened the floodgates of economy in 1991 under the new liberalised pol-

• Farming success India opened the floodgates of economy in 1991 under the new liberalised policy and exposed farmers to international market

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