Prakash Kammaradi, Agriculture Economist, at a press conference in Mangaluru on Saturday, April 20.
| Photo Credit: H.S. MANJUNATH

The government should announce legally backed minimum procurement price for food crops and the Congress and the BJP, two major political parties contesting the Lok Sabha elections, should make their commitment on the same clear, former Chairman of Karnataka Agriculture Price Commission Prakash Kammaradi said here on Saturday, April 20.

Addressing presspersons, he said that there are 21 food crops. If the government was to purchase them by offering a minimum support price backed by the legislation, it might have to reserve ₹5 lakh crore per annum. The fund will not be a huge burden to the Union government.

He said that farmers have been demanding to offer the minimum support price for food crops with legal backing. The government should fulfil their demand.

The Congress has now promised that it will procure food crops by offering legally backed minimum support price (MSP). But it should become a reality if it forms the government. The Union government led by the BJP too has said that it is ready to procure cotton, jowar, and pulses by offering minimum support price. Its commitment to offering legally backed MSP should become clear, he said.

The commission headed by him submitted a report on the legally backed MSP to the government in 2018.

If the stock of food grains purchased by the government by offering MSP was in excess then the government can distribute the same among children and women suffering from malnutrition. A legally backed MSP scheme avoids the intervention of middlemen while farmers selling their produces, he said.

A file photo of Bharatiya Kisan Sangha national general secretary Mohini Mohan Mishra.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

The Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) — a farmers’ body affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) — has condemned the violent protests by some farm unions who are demanding guaranteed minimum support prices (MSP), but it also rebuked the BJP-led Union government for not paying heed to the farmers’ pleas. The BKS warned the government that its nationalism, discipline, and preference for dialogue should not be mistaken as signs of weakness.

“When farmer organisations of the country come to Delhi in a disciplined and peaceful manner and present the problems and demands of the farmers to the right forums, the government does not consider it appropriate to talk to them. The attitude of the government is regrettable, which is why the possibility of violent agitation increases,” BKS general secretary Mohini Mohan Mishra told journalists on Saturday.

He added that the ‘politicisation’ of the farming community and their demands is adding to their woes.

‘Governments least concerned about farmers’

The BKS statement comes against the backdrop of the thousands of farmers gathered at the Punjab and Haryana border, attempting to enter Delhi with their demands for a legal guarantee of MSPs for their produce. The agitation that started earlier has been marred by multiple deaths at protest sites allegedly caused by the actions of the police, who have used pellet guns, tear gas shells and lathis in clashes with the protesting farmers.

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In December 2022, thousands of farmers under the aegis of the BKS had raised a demand for MSPs among others from Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan. Announcing that non-violence was their choice but not a compulsion, they warned that the government would face trouble if their demands were not met. At a gathering of farmers from 560 districts of the country, the BKS declared that it was now evident that the governments, both at the States and the Centre, are least concerned for farmers.

Remunerative prices needed

Speaking about the resolutions passed after a two day annual meeting of BKS office bearers in Ajmer, Mr. Mishra said that farmers should get remunerative prices on the basis of their input costs, adding that GST on agricultural inputs should be abolished.

“We demand that there should be a substantial increase in the Kisan Samman Nidhi given by the government. Also, genetically modified (GM) seeds should not be allowed in market,” Mr. Mishra said, adding that seeds are the right of farmers and governments should make arrangements to stop the exploitation of farmers in the marketplace. The BKS resolutions also called for a comprehensive policy for the marketing of grains.

The BKS statements on farmers demands for guaranteed MSPs, however, run contrary to the tone of an editorial in the Organiser, an English mouthpiece of the RSS, the BKS’ parent body. The editorial had claimed that massive mobilisation and blockade of roads is being done by farmers with “unreasonable” demands, such as legal guarantees for MSPs for all crops, loan waivers, and pensions for all farmers.