Representatives of various farmers organisations from Kalaburagi would take a delegation to Delhi on March 9 to exert pressure on the Union government to revise minimum support price (MSP) for red gram.
Maruti Manpade, State president of the Karnataka Pranth Raita Sangha (KPRS), addressing a round-table conference jointly organised by KPRS, Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS), All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) here on Sunday, said that the delegation would meet Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman and Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan and urge them to resolve the issues pertaining to minimum support price and import duties for red gram.
Mr. Manpade said that farmers in the district, which has largest producers of red gram, will be affected if the government fails to increase minimum support price for the crop. Of the 70 lakh quintal red gram production in the State, around 40 lakh quintal of red gram is cultivated in the district.
The estimated pulses production in India is 175 lakh tonnes against the requirement of 222 lakh tonnes. The Union government has set a target of importing 40.67 lakh tonnes of pulses to India this year. Of this, 27.86 lakh tonnes of pulses have been imported already.
While the government has fixed a minimum support price of ₹ 5,500 per quintal of red gram, it is importing the produce at ₹ 10,114 per quintal, Mr. Manpade said.
The former Minister S.K. Kanta said that the farming sector is in a crisis due to the widening gap between the cost of cultivation and profit margins. The minimum support price of ₹ 5,050 along with the State government’s incentive of ₹ 450 a quintal is meagre. The other demands include increasing import duty up to 30 % for pulses and establishing procurement centres in the hobli level to purchase agriculture produces till the end of April this year. The farmers urged the government to increase compensation to ₹ 15,000 for each acre of crop damaged due to floods and drought and waive crop loans taken from both cooperative and nationalised banks.
