VIJAYAWADA: Paddy cultivators in Nellore, East Godavari and Kurnool, the top paddy producers in the state, are not happy with the Minimum Support Price announced by the Centre. The Union Cabinet had on Wednesday approved the MSP of Rs 1,960 per quintal of grade A variety of paddy and Rs 1,940 per quintal of common variety of paddy for the 2021-22 marketing season — an increase of Rs 72 per quintal on both varieties. In the 2020-21 marketing session, MSP for A-grade variety was Rs 1,888 and for common variety Rs 1,868 per quintal.
However, farmers and farmer leaders in the state argued that the Centre failed to know the ground reality before announcing the MSP. “If the estimated cost of paddy cultivation in 2020-21 was taken into account, it will cost Rs 54,900 per acre. If the yield is good and there are no adverse climatic conditions, the production per acre will be 23 quintals. The cost per cultivating one quintal of paddy comes to Rs 2,387.
Going by MSP for grade A paddy last year, per acre, farmer would get only Rs 43,424, while the cost of cultivation was Rs 54,900, that is, a loss of Rs 11,476 per acre,’’ explained All India Bharat Kisan SAbha vice-president Ravula Venkaiah. According to AP Rythu Sangham president P Ramachandraiah and general secretary KVV Prasad, Rs 70 increase is “laughable”, when the escalation in cost of labour, fuel, seeds, farm equipment due to Covid pandemic is taken into consideration.
“Cost of cultivation has gradually increased in the last two years. Labour charges, cost of agriculture equipment and others have increased. In fact, labour charges have doubled this year. There was a shortage of labour during the pandemic,” said K Sri Hari, a farmer from Kodavaluru mandal of Nellore district.
Normally, Nellore district cultivates seven lakh acres of paddy in the first crop and three lakh acres in the second crop. But, this year, the extent of the area reduced significantly. In Chittoor, groundnut is one of the major crops which depends on rainfall. Farmers in the region are unhappy with the MSP for the crop. B Raja Saheb, a farmer from Kurnool, said the amount they spent on cultivating and transporting the produce to the market is more than what is being offered as MSP. “Why don’t those who decided MSP look at what really happens at the ground level,” he asked.