There are many reasons behind the farmers’ movement. This time the farmers have announced to march to Delhi with four demands. These demands include the government enacting a law to guarantee minimum support price (MSP) for all crops, re-enacting the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, bringing a scheme for complete loan waiver of farmers and laborers and improving the quality of seeds. Involves making improvements. things like.
What is MSP? What are its benefits to farmers?
MSP i.e. Minimum Support Price is an important planning policy related to the Indian agriculture sector. Through this, the Government of India works to purchase agricultural products from all the farmers of India at the minimum support price. And the main objective of determining MSP is to protect farmers from possible losses and to encourage them to produce. Even if the price of crops falls according to the market, the central government still buys crops from the farmers at this MSP so that the farmers can be saved from losses.
What are the 3 demands of farmers in MSP?
Following were some of the main demands of the farmers in the 2024 farmers’ movement:
- Guarantee of Minimum Support Price (MSP): Farmers demand that the government make a law to guarantee Minimum Support Price (MSP) for all crops. This means that the government will buy farmers’ crops at MSP in any case. This, in a way, protects the income of farmers, because even if the market price goes below the MSP, the government will still buy the crop at the MSP.
- Government Land Acquisition Law: The government can acquire land for development, urbanization or industrialization. In return the government will give appropriate compensation. The Land Acquisition Act of 2013 has replaced the old Land Acquisition Act of 1894 (Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013). Under this Act, we have to provide fair remuneration to land owners, bring transparency in the system and indirectly rehabilitate the government to those who are most affected because their land has been taken away.
- Loan waiver: One of the main demands of farmers and laborers is to demand complete loan waiver so that their economic condition can improve. Therefore, the government is expected to waive off all their loans.
These demands are in the interest of farmers and can improve their economic condition. Therefore, it is also very important for the government and farmer organization to cooperate towards dialogue and solution.
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What loss will the government suffer by giving MSP?
Giving MSP can cause various types of losses to the government:
- Financial burden: Regarding, it is true that giving MSP (Minimum Support Price) can increase the financial burden on the government. If the market price is less than the MSP, the government has to spend additional money to buy the crops at MSP. The reason for this is that when the government buys a crop at MSP, it has to pay the highest price for that crop, even if the market price is low. This increases the government’s expenses.
- Storage Problem: Crops purchased under MSP require proper storage to keep them safe. If proper storage facilities are not in place, crops may be damaged.
- Misdistribution of grants: MSP is an important scheme that aims to protect farmers from fluctuations in crop prices. But sadly, the benefits of this scheme reach only 6% of the farmers. Moreover, MSP is applicable only on some selected crops and there is no MSP for other crops which are grown by farmers.
- Direction of development: Farmers are encouraged by the MSP policy to move in the direction of development. Due to this, they are motivated to cultivate crops for which the MSP has been fixed. But this may make it difficult for them to explore and adopt other crops and latest methods of farming.
Therefore, the MSP policy needs to be balanced and fully implemented, so that its advantages and disadvantages are balanced.
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