Chandigarh29.13 in the bank accounts of 8,528 sunflower farmers as “interim relief” under the Bhavantar Bharpayee scheme, in the wake of farmers’ protest over the Haryana government not procuring sunflower crop at the minimum support price (MSP). Transferred Rs. Scheme (BBY).
The state government had earlier this year announced the inclusion of sunflower crop under BBY, a scheme through which it pays a fixed compensation to farmers for their produce sold below the MSP.
At a press conference in Chandigarh on Saturday, Khattar said his government is paying Rs 1,000 per quintal as interim relief to sunflower farmers under BBY, and the state will ensure that farmers do not lose their crops. Are.
So why is the Khattar government shying away from buying sunflower at MSP? When asked this question, the CM said, ‘We have no problem as far as crops are concerned. But when it comes to crops that only Haryana buys at MSP, the problem before us is that crops from neighboring states are smuggled into our state.”
Khattar hoped that the market price of sunflower would increase in the coming days and farmers would get an interim relief of Rs 1,000 over and above the MSP of Rs 6,400.
However, he was non-committal about what would happen if this scenario did not happen: “If it does not happen, we may increase the compensation, although we would not like to announce that right now.”
Krishan Kumar, president of the Kurukshetra unit of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Charuni), who is leading the farmers’ protest over the issue on Ladwa Road, told ThePrint that it was “part of a larger conspiracy to abolish the MSP”.
He said: “First, they stopped giving MSP on bajra and now it is sunflower. The next step would be paddy and wheat as this government is against procuring crops at MSP.”
The central government had announced an MSP of Rs 6,400 per quintal for sunflower crop for 2022-23. Haryana farmers, however, are agitating over the state’s decision not to procure sunflower at MSP, which they say has forced them to “sell their crop to private buyers at Rs 4,000 to Rs 4,800″. Is”.
Last Tuesday, agitating farmers blocked the Chandigarh-Delhi highway at Shahabad in Kurukshetra district. After this the police took action StickAccused and arrested nine farmer leaders including Bhakiyu (Charuni) President Gurnam Singh Charuni.
A day after farmers’ protests, the central government announced an increase in the MSP on sunflower from Rs 6,400 to Rs 6,760 for the 2023-24 season.
He said that the Central Government announces MSP for 22-23 crops including 14 Kharif crops for the entire country and it is up to the states on which crop they want to give MSP to the farmers.
‘Interstate Smuggling’
On Saturday, Khattar said in detail on crop procurement that Haryana procures wheat and paddy on MSP on behalf of the Central Agency Food Corporation of India. “Since these crops are procured by central agencies from neighboring states as well, there is no challenge of smuggling to the government,” he added.
However, he pointed out, “When we procured millet at MSP, it was found that farmers from other states were also selling their millet crops in our mandis.”
“For three years, we bought bajra at MSP – Rs 1,950 per quintal in 2018-19, Rs 2,000 per quintal in 2019-20 and Rs 2,150 per quintal in 2020-21. However, in the neighboring state of Rajasthan, the crop was selling at Rs 1,500 per quintal. Despite the government’s efforts, bajra was being smuggled here from Rajasthan, where it is grown in abundance,” Khattar said.
He told that a similar situation has come to the fore in the case of sunflower as well.
The CM said, “If we buy the crop at an MSP of Rs 6,400 per quintal, the crop is smuggled into Haryana from the neighboring state of Punjab, as the price of sunflower is (around) Rs 4,000 in the market.”
He stressed that this is the reason why the Haryana government has decided not to procure crops like sunflower and millet at MSP and instead compensate farmers under BBY.
“We only transfer the difference between the market price and the MSP to farmers’ accounts and leave it to them to sell their crops anywhere,” Khattar said.
‘Fake claims on farmers’ portal’
In the press conference, the CM further informed that the Haryana government had launched ‘Meri Fasal Mera Byora’ portal and it was decided that only those farmers should get the benefits of MSP and BBY who upload their crop details on it.
But the government found that fake details were being uploaded on the portal. Farmers had registered 40,000 acres of sunflower crop till the last date of registration for this Kharif season (2022-23). On demand, the portal was reopened for three days. In these three days, farmers registered sunflower crop in 17,000 acres,” he said.
During verification, it was found that the farmers who grew wheat in rabi season had shown that they had sown sunflower for kharif season, which is practically not possible as wheat is harvested in April while sunflower is sown from 15th March. It has to be done first. We have already rejected the claims of sunflower on 9,000 acres as they were doubtful and the verification is still on.
Talking about smuggling, an official of the Haryana Agricultural Marketing Board told ThePrint that the state had procured 1.18 lakh metric tonnes of millet at MSP in 2018. However, the next year, 3.10 lakh metric tonnes of millet came in the market for procurement and it increased to 7.66 lakh metric tonnes in 2020.
“If you compare the year-on-year increase in production with the corresponding procurement figures, you will realize that unless the crop is smuggled from outside, a bounce is pretty much impossible,” the official said.
He said that interventions like police pickets at Haryana’s borders have failed to stop smuggling.
(Editing by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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