Hyderabad: The Union government would announce the much-awaited minimum support price (MSP) for paddy for this kharif season soon. Talking to newspersons on the sidelines of a national conference of the Ministers of Agriculture here on Monday, Sharad Pawar, Union Agriculture Minister, said the government would, in all likelihood, announce the MSP on May 29 or 30. He hinted that the MSP would be higher.
Pawar asserted there was no question of import of wheat as the stocks position was good. “Last year, the procurement was 111 lakh tonnes as against a requirement of 140-150 lakh tonnes. This year, we have already procured 210 lakh tonnes as against the target of 150 lakh tonnes, with Punjab contributing 80 lakh tonnes and Haryana 40 lakh tonnes."
Rice procurement
The situation on the rice front too was satisfactory, with a total procurement of 246 lakh tonnes as against the required 270 lakh tonnes. With one more month of procurement still to go, the country expected to procure more. “We have been getting calls not just from our States. We are getting calls from the neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and some African countries. We expect that we could help them out,” he said.
State schemes
Asked about the appeal of States to increase additional rice to support subsidised rice schemes, he said though the Government was not against such schemes, it was up to the States to take care of the additional burden. He made it clear that the States should bear the extra cost in case they needed rice to support their schemes.
Pawar said the issue price of commodities distributed through the public distribution system had not gone up despite the increases in procurement costs. “It is time to think over it. We need to discuss it,” he said.
Pulses, oil output
Earlier, addressing a seminar, Pawar pegged the requirement of pulses at 19.11 million tonnes by 2011-12. He said the country needed to evolve a strategy for increasing pulses production and productivity.
The self-sufficiency levels of vegetable oils had fallen to 60 per cent now from 98 per cent in 1997-98. By 2015, the requirement of vegetable oil in the country would be 18.3 million tonnes that was equivalent to 55 million tonnes of oilseeds to meet the domestic demand. He said climate change had posed serious challenges to the country. Quoting experts, he said Haryana and Punjab would be impacted most in the years to come.
“Following the recommendations of CACP, the Centre should give Rs 1,000 a quintal for paddy,” the AP Minister for Agriculture, N Raghuveera Reddy, told Pawar after the conference of Agriculture Ministers held at National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM). Pawar reportedly assured Reddy that the Centre was convinced that the paddy farmers deserved a higher MSP. “It might trigger the price of rice in the open market. But we need to encourage farmers to grow paddy. Or, we will be forced to import rice,” sources said, quoting Pawar.
Pawar is likely to meet Dr Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister, and P Chidambaram, the Finance Minister, on May 29 to discuss the issue.
Pawar asserted there was no question of import of wheat as the stocks position was good. “Last year, the procurement was 111 lakh tonnes as against a requirement of 140-150 lakh tonnes. This year, we have already procured 210 lakh tonnes as against the target of 150 lakh tonnes, with Punjab contributing 80 lakh tonnes and Haryana 40 lakh tonnes."
Rice procurement
The situation on the rice front too was satisfactory, with a total procurement of 246 lakh tonnes as against the required 270 lakh tonnes. With one more month of procurement still to go, the country expected to procure more. “We have been getting calls not just from our States. We are getting calls from the neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and some African countries. We expect that we could help them out,” he said.
State schemes
Asked about the appeal of States to increase additional rice to support subsidised rice schemes, he said though the Government was not against such schemes, it was up to the States to take care of the additional burden. He made it clear that the States should bear the extra cost in case they needed rice to support their schemes.
Pawar said the issue price of commodities distributed through the public distribution system had not gone up despite the increases in procurement costs. “It is time to think over it. We need to discuss it,” he said.
Pulses, oil output
Earlier, addressing a seminar, Pawar pegged the requirement of pulses at 19.11 million tonnes by 2011-12. He said the country needed to evolve a strategy for increasing pulses production and productivity.
The self-sufficiency levels of vegetable oils had fallen to 60 per cent now from 98 per cent in 1997-98. By 2015, the requirement of vegetable oil in the country would be 18.3 million tonnes that was equivalent to 55 million tonnes of oilseeds to meet the domestic demand. He said climate change had posed serious challenges to the country. Quoting experts, he said Haryana and Punjab would be impacted most in the years to come.
“Following the recommendations of CACP, the Centre should give Rs 1,000 a quintal for paddy,” the AP Minister for Agriculture, N Raghuveera Reddy, told Pawar after the conference of Agriculture Ministers held at National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM). Pawar reportedly assured Reddy that the Centre was convinced that the paddy farmers deserved a higher MSP. “It might trigger the price of rice in the open market. But we need to encourage farmers to grow paddy. Or, we will be forced to import rice,” sources said, quoting Pawar.
Pawar is likely to meet Dr Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister, and P Chidambaram, the Finance Minister, on May 29 to discuss the issue.
