Votes of paddy and wheat farmers fail the mathematics of MSP

The competition between Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to win the elections has divided the farmers of the country into two classes. One is in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan and the other is in the remaining two poll-bound states. In these states, both parties are promising farmers that if they form the government, they will buy paddy and wheat at a price up to one and a half times the present Minimum Support Price (MSP), while in other states their governments are not even ensuring proper MSP to the farmers.

Though MSP is fixed for 23 crops in the country, wheat and rice are the ones mostly purchased. But the interesting thing is that Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are among the largest participants in government procurement of wheat and paddy. In such a situation, purchasing wheat and paddy there at huge prices can prove beneficial for the farmers. But on the other hand, are the farmers of other states ruled by these parties not entitled to this price?

The Central Government has fixed the MSP of common variety of paddy at Rs 2,183 per quintal for the Kharif marketing season (2023-24), whereas for the upcoming Rabi marketing season (2024-25), the MSP of wheat has been fixed at Rs 2275 per quintal.

Against these prices, Congress in its election manifesto promised that it will give a price of Rs 3200 per quintal to the farmers for paddy in Chhattisgarh and at this price 20 quintals of paddy will be purchased per acre.

In comparison, BJP has promised in its election manifesto that it will purchase 21 quintals of paddy per acre at the price of Rs 3100 per quintal under the Krishi Unnati Scheme in the state.

Chhattisgarh is among the few states in the country that provide the maximum amount of paddy in government procurement. Here, 87.53 lakh tonnes of paddy was purchased by the government in the Kharif marketing season 2022-23. The special thing is that in the 2018 elections, Congress had promised to purchase paddy at Rs 2500 per quintal. Due to this, Congress got huge electoral advantage and it came to power there with a huge majority. It is noteworthy that in the 2017-18 season, there was government procurement of 47.87 lakh tonnes of paddy, which increased by 40 lakh tonnes to 87.53 lakh tonnes in 2022-23.

The Bhupesh Baghel-led Congress government has been purchasing paddy at a higher price at the rate of 15 quintals per acre, which has now been promised to be purchased at the rate of 21 quintals per acre at Rs 3200 per quintal.

On the other hand, in Madhya Pradesh, BJP has promised to purchase government paddy at Rs 3100 per quintal and wheat at Rs 2700 per quintal. Here Congress has promised to buy wheat at Rs 2600 per quintal and paddy at Rs 2500 per quintal.

In the last Rabi season, government procurement of wheat from Madhya Pradesh was 70.97 lakh tonnes whereas the government purchase of paddy here last year was 46.30 lakh tonnes. In the year 2021-22, government procurement of wheat in Madhya Pradesh was 128 lakh tonnes.

Now talking about Rajasthan, BJP in its election manifesto has promised to purchase wheat from the government at Rs 2700 per quintal and has promised to purchase millet and jowar at MSP. In the Kharif marketing season 2023-24, the MSP of jowar is Rs 3225 per quintal and the MSP of Bajra (Pearl millet) is Rs 2500 per quintal.

Last year, there was government procurement of 4.38 lakh tonnes of wheat in Rajasthan, but in 2021-22, there was government procurement of 23.40 lakh tonnes of wheat. In Telangana, another election-going state, last year the government procurement of paddy was 131.86 lakh tonnes.

Due to increase in irrigation facilities here, there has been a huge increase in paddy production and government procurement. It is now the state with the second highest government procurement of paddy in the country after Punjab. Last year, 182.11 lakh tonnes of paddy was procured by the government in Punjab.

Now if we talk about some other BJP ruled states, in Uttar Pradesh last season the government procurement of paddy was 65.5 lakh tonnes and here the government procurement of wheat was stuck at only 2.20 lakh tonnes, though it is the largest producer of wheat in the state.

Whereas in Haryana, the government purchase of paddy was 59.36 lakh tonnes and the government purchase of wheat was 63.17 lakh tonnes. Here, government procurement of wheat in 2021-22 was 84.93 lakh tonnes. Last year, government procurement of paddy in BJP ruled Uttarakhand was 8.96 lakh tonnes.

Now look at this entire issue from another perspective, farmer organizations across the country are demanding guarantee of Minimum Support Price (MSP) and their big demand is to fix the MSP by adding 50 percent profit on the C-2 cost of crops. According to the MSP fixed by the government for Kharif and Rabi crops, it is 50 percent to 102 percent more than the cost.

In such a situation, Congress and BJP have promised to buy wheat with MSP of Rs 2275 at Rs 2600 and Rs 2700 respectively. Whereas paddy which was priced at Rs 2183 per quintal, has been promised to be purchased at the price of Rs 3100 and Rs 3200 per quintal.

If these parties fulfill this promise after coming to power, then the farmers of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan will benefit, but what is the fault of the farmers of other states growing these crops including Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and Uttarakhand. They will not get this price even though BJP is in power in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Uttarakhand.

However, it is also worth noting here that before the BJP government came to power at the Centre in 2014, its state governments in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh used to give bonus in addition to MSP on wheat and paddy, which the Central Government issued an order to stop, saying that if it is not stopped then it will not purchase paddy and wheat. But Congress's promise of 2018 and its election results in Chhattisgarh have changed BJP's opinion.

At the same time, Chhattisgarh government and Telangana government have to fight a political battle regarding the purchase of paddy in the central pool. Voting is being completed in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh on 17th November and in Rajasthan on 25th November and in Telangana on 30th November.

It will be known only on December 3, whose promise the farmers trusted between BJP and Congress. As far as other states are concerned, perhaps the farmers there are not so effective in terms of votes that these parties feel the need to pay them more than the MSP.