Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Wednesday wrote to Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar, to consider the revision of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for Milling Copra from ₹99.60 to at least ₹125 per kg for the 2020 Copra season, to safeguard the interests of coconut growers in the country.
In his letter to Mr. Tomar, Mr. Palaniswami pointed out that coconut plantations in Tamil Nadu in the past two years have faced many challenges like the Gaja cyclone in 2018 and the incidence of Rugose Whitefly in 2019.
At present, the market rate in Tamil Nadu and neighbouring States was between ₹100 to ₹110 per kg. “Hence, taking the above challenges into consideration, it is felt that the present MSP for Milling Copra of ₹99.60 per kg would not be adequate to compensate their cost of production,” he said.
Coconut growers incur substantial expenditure during harvesting, transportation and storage of harvested produce, he underlined and contended that the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic has had a detrimental impact on coconut farmers, who have had to incur additional costs due to scarcity of labour and challenges in transportation.
Mr. Palaniswami also pointed out that the Centre had fixed the MSP for crops like paddy, ragi and pulses at 150% of the cost of cultivation. “The coconut farmers also need to be given adequate price for their produce, in order to enable them to overcome the increasing costs of production in the background of seasonal adversities, pest attacks and rising input costs,” he said.
