ABKS to mobilise farmers against ‘low’ paddy MSP

Ranchi: National treasurer of Akhil Bhartiya Kisan Sabha (ABKS), Krishna Prasad, on Thursday claimed that farmers of Jharkhand were getting far less price for paddy compared to their counterparts in other areas of the country.
He said, “ABKS would form crop-wise federations of farmers in the state and press the government to ensure fair prices to them. Similar federations like apple farmer’s federation in Jammu and Kashmir are in existence.”
Prasad said that farmers of the state are getting on an average minimum sale price of Rs 12,000 per metric tonne compared to all India price of Rs 20,400 per metric tonne and Rs 28,200 per metric tonne in Kerala.
He said that going by the figure that 40 lakh metric tonne of paddy is being produced on 16.43 lakh hectares in the state, the farmers here are getting Rs 4,800 crore. He added that had the farmers received Rs 20,400 per metric tonne, they would have got Rs 8,160 crore, which means they are currently suffering a loss of Rs 3,360 crore.
“Due to lack of procurement centres, all the farmers are not able to sell their products to the government and are forced to give to middlemen at cheap rates,” he said.
He further said that ABKS and other farmers’ bodies would organise a tractor rally across the country on January 26 and a rally in Delhi on April 5 and 6 to protest against the failure of the central government to fulfill the promises made to farmers and workers during the 2020-21 agitation in New Delhi.
He said that new issues including waiver of farmer’s loans and pension of Rs 10,000 per month would be added to the list of demands during the country-wide agitation.