MSP determination
The M.S. Swaminathan Commission recommended improvement in implementation of Minimum Support Price (MSP) and also in arrangements for the MSP to be in place for crops other than paddy and wheat. The Commission recommended millets and other nutritious cereals be permanently included in the Public Distribution System. A key proposal was that the MSP should be at least 50% more than the weighted average cost of production. While recommending price policy of various commodities under its mandate, the Commission for Agricultural Cost and Prices keeps in mind the various terms of reference given to the CACP in 2009. Accordingly, it analyses demand and supply; cost of production; price trends in the market, both domestic and international; inter-crop price parity; terms of trade between agriculture and non-agriculture; a minimum of 50% as the margin over cost of production, and likely implications of the MSP on consumers. The cost of production is a key factor that goes as an input in the determination of MSP, but it is certainly not the only factor that determines MSP.
K.M.K. Murthy,
Secunderabad
Government vs. farmers
By making sweeping denunciations against the farmers, some Ministers are casting a big shadow over their publicly articulated commitment on negotiations to redress the legitimate grievances of farmers. The very strategy of name calling and labelling the protests can hardly help break the stalemate. Any attempt to tar and taint the most dignified and peaceful protests does not augur well for India’s democracy.
M. Jeyaram,
Sholavandan, Tamil Nadu
Cost of ‘progress’
It was not long ago that progress in metrics such as child nutrition was a certainty and we, as a nation, only had to debate how the pace of our progress could be improved. On the contrary, we are moving backwards. One cannot help but wonder if the post-liberalisation trend of a retreat by the state and public sector from the social sector and the market is responsible for the present crisis. Are we sacrificing too much in actual progress of the many disadvantaged to seek a land of unbridled economic growth benefiting a few?
Kannan K.,
Meloor, Chalakkudy, Kerala
