Budget 2018: New MSP system to bring bounty for coarse grain croppers
Farmers who typically come under small and marginal categories and those who don't have irrigation facilities will get the maximum benefits, said Rajasthan Agriculture Minister Prabhu Lal Saini.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley’s budget speech was dominated by measures to support the agriculture sector.
NEW DELHI: The biggest gainers from the new system of crop support prices will be small farmers who grow coarse grains in the politically important states of Rajasthan, Karnataka and Maharashtra, where the ruling BJP hopes to benefit from the Budget announcement.
Rajasthan’s agriculture minister, Prabhu Lal Saini, told ET that with coarse grains accounting for one-third of the cultivated land in the state, there would be significant gains for farmers growing bajra, jowar, maize, pulses and oilseed, as the government would make sure that they get support prices that are one-and-a-half times the input cost.
Farmers who typically come under small and marginal categories and those who don't have irrigation facilities will get the maximum benefits, Saini said. Coarse cereals are grown on about 58.4 lakh hectares in the state, where farmers suffer because of erratic rainfall and extreme temperature.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley’s budget speech was dominated by measures to support the agriculture sector. These include schemes to boost irrigation, promote the food processing and fisheries segments as well as a heavy allocation of funds for rural infrastructure.
In terms of area under cultivation of coarse grains, Karnataka comes after Rajasthan with 21.46 hectares, followed by Maharashtra with 21.33 lakh hectare. Rajasthan and Karnataka are scheduled to elect the next government this year, while in Maharashtra, assembly elections would be next year.
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"This year’s budget is profarmer and it is now up to us to implement it successfully.
We will ensure farmers get MSP for crops. There are ample storage facilities with the state's warehousing corporations to store grain, coarse cereals and others," Saini said. “MSP of coarse cereals — bajra, jowar and maize — was .`1,425-1,725 a quintal.
Now, with the government fixing the support price at 1.5 times the input cost for kharif crop, farmers will get good prices," Saini said.
He said even farmers growing pulses such as moong, moth bean and urad would also benefit.
