Farmers shifting to safer paddy, sugarcane

Better days are ahead for farmers as rural incomes are forecast to rise faster given the increasing shift to safer crops like paddy and sugarcane in anticipation of further hike in minimum support prices (MSP) and other government doles.

Facing elections, the Centre had woken up to woo farmers with steep hike in MSPs twice since June, and the new procurement policies are more visible in the electorally vital states in the north and central regions, while other states are only seeing patchy efforts, says a report.

“Overall, we see the strength in rural incomes persisting for this crop cycle, given the shift to safer crops and with hope of continued government support,” says the eighth edition of the Rural Safari by JM Financial.

‘Grow rice, get fat!’ is the mantra that the farmers seem to be following, says the report ,which observes that farmers have moved away from “riskier” crops like pulses and coarse cereals to “safer” crops such as paddy and sugarcane to capitalise on the better procurement available to them.

Even within paddy, there is an increasing shift towards non-Basmati varieties, says the report, which attributes this to the higher MSP for normal rice.

It can be noted that paddy sowing is up 2.4 per cent y-o-y this year with more growth in the South and other paddy growing regions, despite 9.4 per cent lower rainfall.