Farmers turn away from MSP, sell paddy in open market

Chamarajanagara: MSP (minimum support price) is a major demand from farmers for their produce across the country. This ensures a decent and minimum price for agriculture produce regardless of market forces controlled by middlemen. The State government like elsewhere has opened purchasing centres to buy paddy, ragi and other produce from farmers as per minimum support price (MSP). But farmers are opting for open market to sell paddy in the district as they are getting higher price than the MSP fixed by the government.

Predominantly agriculture-based, paddy and ragi are two major crops of the district. The government has fixed Rs 1,940 as MSP per quintal of paddy and Rs 1,960 per quintal for 'A' grade paddy. But farmers are getting Rs 1,950 per quintal of paddy in the open market. The farmers are even getting Rs 2,600-2,800 per quintal for Jyothi variety in the open market.

In this paddy harvesting season, rice mill owners and brokers are visiting farmers offering to buy their produce. Paddy is largely grown in Kollegala, Yelandur taluks and Sathemaralli Hobali in Chamarajanagara taluk.

When contacted, Yelandur agriculture assistant director Y G Amruteshwara said that nearly 60-70 percent harvest was completed in the taluk. Out of 4,000 paddy growers just eight farmers have registered with the Yelandur paddy purchasing centre so far. Farmers say that the purchasing centres are buying only quality paddy and delay the payment, while private buyers pay within a week's time. Moreover, they purchase from the fields and save farmers from a lot of labour, time and expenditure on transporting the produce to their home for storage and subsequently to the purchase centres.

This year untimely rains have destroyed 20-30 percent of paddy crop, according to farmers.

The district administration is also preparing to open centres to buy ragi at MSP of Rs 3,370 per quintal. Ragi is being gown in a large quantity in Hanur and Chamarajanagara taluks. The harvesting of Ragi has been completed and farmers who have storage facility have kept it to sell at government purchasing centres. The ragi price in the open market is Rs 2,700-2,800 per quintal. Small farmers who are in urgent need of money are selling ragi at lower prices.