Krishna Byregowda, former Agriculture Minister and Congress MLA, on Tuesday demanded that the State take a delegation of MPs to the Centre to convince it of the need to prevent “indiscriminate” import of cheap pepper.
Participating in a debate in the Assembly on fall in prices of farm produce and procurement under MSP scheme on Tuesday, Mr. Byregowda expressed concern that the price of black pepper, which had touched ₹694 a kg in 2016-17, had crashed to of ₹250-300 a kg.
This was mainly due to the import of large quantum of cheaper and inferior quality pepper from Vietnam through Sri Lanka, he alleged.
‘Import from Vietnam’
He expressed concern that though the origin of the imports was being shown as Sri Lanka, it was Vietnam produce in large quantities that was being routed through Sri Lanka.
This kind of dumping, Mr. Byregowda said, is at the cost of the survival of farmers from Malnad.
Mr. Byregowda also urged the government to provide incentive to farmers in addition to MSPs. “This is because, the net value of crops as per MSPs has actually reduced as the annual increase in MSPs is much lesser than inflation rate,” he said.
