New Delhi: Odisha’s ruling the Biju Janata Dal feels that the Centre has not implemented the recommendations of Swaminathan Committee on the minimum support price (MSP) for food grains, said BJD MP Dr. Sasmit Patra.
Responding to the statement made by Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the BJD MP said that the Centre has not implemented the recommendations of Swaminathan panel report on fixing the MSP properly.
Patra elaborated how the Centre has misled the farmers in calculating the MSP.
“Swaminathan himself has stated in October, 2020 last year. He had stated and I quote “ When we recommended the 50% increase on cost of production, we meant the C2 as the total cost of production. From his statement itself it’s clear that Swaminathan himself is not accepting the fact that the Swaminathan Commission report has been fully implemented nor have the recommendations in the Swaminathan Commission report been implemented as the 1.5 times increase in MSP has not been done on the C2- Cost of Production”, the BJD MP said.
The Swaminathan Commission report has not been fully implemented nor have the recommendations in the Swaminathan Commission report been implemented as the 1.5 times increase in MSP has not been done on the C2- Cost of Production.
So, what is this C2- Cost of Production as per the Swaminathan Commission report. There are three components of cost of production of farming. First is A2 which deals with the out of pocket expenses of a farmer such as the seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, etc. that he purchases. The second component is A2 + FL which includes the cost of A2 and includes Family Labour (FL) i.e. the cost of the human labour that the farmer and his family contributes to the farming. The third component is C2 which is the total of A2+FL as well as includes the opportunity cost of land, the interest for the loans taken by the farmer as well as the imputed rentals for the land.
Swaminathan Commission Report had asked the Government to implement the Minimum Support Price (MSP) at 1.5 times of this C2 value but the Government has not done that. Let me further prove it with facts and data from the Government. These costs of production for all crops are determined by the Commission for Agricultural Prices and Costs (CACP) and in 2018-19 Kharif Season as per page-98 of the CACP document, where the C2 cost of production for Paddy was fixed at Rs. 1560 per quintal.
If the Swaminathan Commission Report was actually implemented then the MSP would have been fixed at 1.5 times of Rs. 1560 per quintal totalling Rs. 2340 per quintal. Instead, the MSP was fixed in 2018-19 at Rs. 1750 per quintal, thereby clearly proving that the Swaminathan Committee report has not been implemented in full. This Rs. 1750 per quintal MSP for paddy was arrived at after increasing the A2+FL cost of Rs. 1166 by 1.5 times.
Instead of increasing the MSP on A2+FL, the Government should have increased it on C2. This is where the Swaminathan Commission report has not been implemented. This is what the Biju Janata Dal has been demanding that the Swaminathan Commission report be implemented in full with the increase of 1.5 times on C2 cost of production be undertaken, Sasmit Patra said.
In 2018, there was a unanimous resolution passed in the Odisha Legislative Assembly where the BJD, BJP, Congress and Communist Party MLAs came together and demanded that the MSP for paddy be fixed at Rs. 2930 per quintal. This was done with reference to increasing the MSP by 1.5 times from C2 value of Rs. 1560 per quintal totalling Rs. 2340 and adding 25% of land cost on this amount, the value arrived at is Rs. 2930 MSP on paddy per quintal.
If the BJP MLAs in Odisha can be so positive and demand Rs. 2930 MSP on paddy per quintal then why are the BJP party in the Parliament not wanting to implement the Swaminathan Commission Report? , Patra asked.
Notably, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday that the Centre has implemented the Swaminathan report on MSP at 1.5 times of the cost of production and asked BJD MP Prasanna Acharya to comment on the issue after reading the report properly.
The Union Minister also requested BJD MP Sasmit Patra to keep the record straight on Swaminathan report and its implementation.