CHANDIGARH: While the entire country is seething over soaring petrol and diesel prices, farmers of Punjab and Haryana, considered the country’s food bowl, are feeling the pinch even more as cultivation costs have gone up by more than 10 per cent. “The cultivation cost of per acre of paddy is now between Rs 20,000-Rs 22,000 or Rs 2,000 per quintal, while the farmer gets a minimum support price (MSP) of only Rs 1,600 per quintal.
The farmer is using 50 litres of diesel per acre for transplanting (paddy) in case of power shortage and also for running the generator to operate the tube well,” Pavitar Pal Pangali, president of Borlaug Farmers Association for South Asia, told The Sunday Standard.
“With diesel prices rising every day, it is having a domino effect and prices of other commodities are also surging, thus there has been a 5-10 per cent increase in cultivation costs,” he said.“At present, the cultivation cost of wheat is around Rs 15,000 per acre (Rs 2,250 per quintal) while the MSP is Rs 1,725 per quintal. The cultivation costs of both paddy and wheat include 18 per cent GST on agro chemicals (insecticides, weedicides, fungicides and seed treatment) which is between Rs 6,000 and Rs 8,000 per acre),” Pangali said.
Ashwinder Singh Mongia, convenor of Petrol Pump Dealers Association of Punjab said, “The total consumption of diesel is 40.17 lakh kilolitres per annum, of which 35 per cent is consumed by the agriculture sector, 50 per cent by transport sectors and the rest by industry. In the summer months the consumption of diesel increases.”
There are 13.50 lakh tube wells in Punjab that run on electricity as state government gives free power to farmers, but there 1.50 lakh tube wells that run on diesel generators. With the paddy season round the corner, the cultivators are even more worried. Paddy sowing will start by June-end and continue till October 15. They fear that foodgrain production could be hit if the government did not bring down diesel prices or provided relief to the farmers.
Balbir Singh Rajewal, president of Punjab chapter of Bhartiya Kisan Union, said, “Earlier, the famer spent about Rs 150-Rs 200 per hour on using tractors in the fields (diesel cost). Now, it is between `350 and `700 per hour, depending on the size of the field. We have instructed all our units in the state to start an agitation on the increasing diesel prices. We will sit on dharnas in front of offices of sub-divisional magistrates. Our demand is that the Union government should give farmers tax-free diesel as we feed the country.”
Puneet Singh Thind, a farmer, said the high costs had hit even vegetable production this year. “This season, the farmers did not pluck chilies and cauliflower due to high costs. The cost of chillies was Rs 9 per kg while they were not getting even half the rates. So, many farmers left the crop in the fields. The cauliflower also ended up the same way,” Thind said.