Centre let down farmers on support price: Somireddy

Amaravati: Stating that the state government was committed to the welfare of farmers by taking several measures to protect their interests including implementation of Swaminathan Commission recommendations of support prices to various crops, agriculture minister Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy criticised the NDA government for failing to provide minimum support price (MSP) to agricultural produce despite making tall claims that farmers’ income would be doubled by 2022. 

During the Question Hour in Assembly on Tuesday, the minister said that the Central government was supposed to fix the MSP for paddy at Rs 2,823 per quintal as per the Swaminathan Commission's recommendations but it had prescribed Rs 1,750 and added that the Andhra Pradesh government had proposed Rs 3,472 per quintal of paddy.

Likewise, the state government recommended Rs 2,823 per quintal for maize and Rs 2,932 for jowar as MSP but the Centre fixed Rs 1,750 for both the crops. There is a vast gap between the MSP and cost of production, he noted.  

The minister said that the Central government had failed to honour the recommendations of Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) in fixing MSP for various agricultural products. Somireddy said that the state government had purchased maize spending Rs 290 crore to benefit the farmers by paying Rs 6,600 per quintal.

He lamented that the Central government was not coming forward to extend help to the state in implementing micro irrigation schemes despite the state being stood in first place in their implementation. 

“The state government spent Rs 3,400 crore to purchase various agricultural products. But the Central government has been adopting a partisan attitude by procuring agricultural produce at MSP in only BJP-ruled states,” the minister alleged. MLAs N Ramanaidu, Dhulipalla Narendra and Chand Basha said that the NDA government had failed to fulfil its election manifesto.