Centre does a flip-flop on paddy

Hyderabad: In sharp contrast to his earlier position on crop diversification, union Food Minister Piyush Goyal recently urged States to encourage paddy cultivation citing huge demand for rice in the global market. The Centre, however, has not announced a ‘Plan B’ in case of a drop in demand once the crops come up for harvesting […]

Hyderabad: In sharp contrast to his earlier position on crop diversification, union Food Minister Piyush Goyal recently urged States to encourage paddy cultivation citing huge demand for rice in the global market.

The Centre, however, has not announced a ‘Plan B’ in case of a drop in demand once the crops come up for harvesting after four-five months. This lack of an action plan may prove disastrous for farmers, especially those in Telangana, observe agricultural experts.

For decades, farmers in India have been suffering due to the lack of remunerative price for their produce. Though successive governments at the Centre have been promising minimum support price (MSP) for around 25 crops, it faces two challenges. First, the MSP is being fixed without taking into consideration the actual expenditure incurred by the farmers. Instead, the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) is fixing the price based on the production volumes of the preceding three years. The second challenge is that most farmers do not have access to international markets to export their produce. “Agriculture being a State subject, most States have been discharging their duties by providing water, electricity, investment support, seed and fertilizer, among others. However, the Central government, when led by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and now the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), failed to come up with a holistic national policy for marketing agricultural produce to double farmers’ income,” said Consortium of Indian Farmers Associations (CIFA) chief advisor P Chengal Reddy.

Considering the union Minister’s suggestion, there are renewed fears about the fate of farmers who cultivate paddy. If the States decide to encourage farmers to cultivate paddy and there is a bumper yield, there is no clarity on how the paddy can be exported to other countries. The Centre is yet to come up with an action plan for rice exports as well as a contingency plan in case there is a drop in the demand after four-five months during the harvest season. “There is about 92 lakh tonnes of paddy stock lying in warehouses and godowns across Telangana. This is the result of the promises by the union Minister and other BJP leaders, who assured that the Centre would purchase every grain of paddy from Telangana. However, there has been no response from the Centre even after the State government procured the paddy and is ready to supply raw rice as sought by the union government. What will the State government do if there is a drop in demand for rice and the Centre denies support?” asked an official of the Agriculture Department, indicating that the State government had no plans to encourage paddy cultivation.

Instead, Telangana is likely to go ahead with crop diversification, which will be beneficial for farmers in the long term. Speaking to Telangana Today, Chengal Reddy said due to the lack of proper farm research activity, there has been no major increase in productivity of any crop in the last 30 years. Thus, India’s average productivity was low compared to many Asian and African countries. He reminded that the Centre, which does not hesitate to purchase defence, medical and other technologies from other nations and multi-national companies, was not obtaining agriculture technologies. Further, the funds for agricultural research activity, too, have been cut down, he added. Reddy wanted the Centre to encourage long-term agreements for the export of rice, wheat and cotton on the lines of long-term agreements for the import of pulses and oil seeds.