The ‘Dilli Chalo’ protest march will resume at 11 am on Wednesday, the farmer unions said, adding that the government must add oil seeds and Bajra also under the MSP. This fresh warning came after the Centre offered a proposal to the farmers that guarantees Minimum Support Prices (MSP) on pulses, maize and cotton.
Farmer leader Gurnam Singh Charuni said that the if the central government doesn’t agree by February 21, Haryana too will join the agitation.
The government should think and understand that these two things (oilseeds and bajra) are very important (for procurement). Just like they mentioned pulses, maize and cotton, they should include these two crops too. If these two are not included, we will have to think about it again because these are our important things which do not get sold. Today mustard is available in the market at Rs 4200, it is being sold at Rs 2,000 less than the MSP,” news agency ANI quoted Charuni as saying.
Importance of Pulses and India’s Production
According to a report in Indian Express, just a handful of states account for half of the country’s total production of pulses.
Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, and Jharkhand produce 95% of India’s masur; Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Jharkhand produce 80% of arhar (tur); and Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra produce 75% of urad, the report stated.
IE further mentioned that India is dependent on imports of pulses to meet its domestic demand. Total production in 2021-22 was only 27.69 million tonnes.
The government has set a target of becoming self-sufficient in pulses by 2027, and has been promoting their production through incentives (in terms of higher MSP), and procurement through initiatives like Price Support Scheme (PSS) and Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF), the publication added.
Why Crop Growing Needs to Diversify in Punjab?
The Indian Express report further explained that more than 80% of the geographical area of Punjab (41.17 lakh hectares out of 50.33 lakh hectares), is under cultivation, mostly under rice and wheat. In 2019-20, as much as 35.21 lakh hectares out of the net sown area of 41.17 lakh hectares was under wheat, and 31.42 lakh hectares was under paddy.
The crops in the Centre’s proposal had very small shares in comparison: 2.48 lakh hectares for cotton, 1.14 lakh hectares for maize, and 33,000 hectares for pulses (both kharif and rabi) in 2019-20, the report stated.
Paddy is a guzzler of water — about 2,500 litres (through irrigation or rainfall) is needed to produce 1 kg of rice — and its cultivation has led to massive and indiscriminate withdrawal of groundwater in the state, which now stares at widespread desertification, IE explained.
Attempts at diversification of cropping patterns have not yielded the desired results. The area under cotton came down from 2.91 lakh hectares in 2017-18 to 2.51 lakh hectares in 2021-22, and the area under maize (which is a kharif crop in Punjab) came down from 1.14 lakh hectares to 1.05 lakh hectares in the same period, the report mentioned.
The area under pulses, however, rose from 30,2000 hectares in 2017-18 to 62,600 hectares in 2021-22, IE stated.
Top Points on Farmers Protest
• Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal said that the government’s proposal will only benefit farmers who rotate from rice grains to pulses between the crop cycles.
• Dallewal further said the central government imports palm oil at the cost of Rs 1.75 lakh crore. If this amount is earmarked for oilseeds cultivated by the farmers, it would benefit them, he added.
• Earlier, Union Minister Piyush Goyal asserted that they had a very positive and extensive discussion with representatives of farmers.
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