State passes buck to Centre for low MSP

​Hyderabad: The State government on Wednesday put the blame on the Centre for low Minimum Support Price (MSP) to farm produce, alleging that the Union government did not take the issue into consideration even after the Assembly had passed a resolution in this regard. 

Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy made these comments in his answer to the criticism of the BJP on low MSP in the Assembly while giving reply to a debate on the demands of his department. 

During the inauguration of Krishi Vigna Kendras, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the MSP should be fixed at 50 per cent more than the cost of production, he said. The Prime Minister included items like seed, fertilizers, water, machines, revenue, interest and wages in the cost. 

The Minister made it clear that the State government did not have the powers to fix the MSP. Though the Prime Minister said during his election campaign that the BJP would implement recommendations of the Swaminathan Committee if voted to power, he had ignored the promise. 

Srinivas Reddy said the objective of the government was to see that the farmers did not need any loan. He emphatically said a day would come when the bankers would make a beeline before the houses of farmers. 

The Minister said if the plans of the government being designed for the benefit of the farmers were implemented, they would deposit lakhs of crores of rupees in the banks, while refuting the allegations of the BJP that the State had failed to avail loan of Rs 11 lakh crore being provided by the Centre through NABARD. 

Srinivas Reddy said the expenditure on construction of irrigation projects, power projects and subsidy on power would go into the accounts of the people and strongly refuted the allegations that the government did not make adequate allocations to agriculture sector. 

Referring to the criticism of the BJP that many other States had implemented round-the-clock power, the Minister said that no BJP-ruled State had been implementing the programme. 

He said it was the Telangana government in the entire world which had been giving investment assistance to farmers. The government allocated Rs 12,000 crore for the scheme and it would be spent. He said the scheme would not be applicable to tenant farmers due to technical problems. He said crop invest of Rs 4,000 per acre would be given to 1.5 lakh acres of land in the State. 

He said with the help of Farmers Coordination Committees, the farmers would be able to sell their produce where they would get remunerative price. The FCCs would be provided with Rs 600 crore to Rs 700 crore bank loan support to ensure MSP to the farmers. 

The government would provide the farmers with plantation machines, keeping the labour shortage that would arise in the future. Agro processing units would be set up in the Assembly constituencies. 

He said the State wanted implementation of crop insurance taking farmers as unit. The government purchased 2.75 lakh tons of red gram in this year and 18 25 lakh tons of paddy was also purchased.