West UP paddy farmers protest, demand guarantee of MSP

LUCKNOW: Even as the union government has brought in new farm laws which it claims will enable farmers to sell their produce anywhere, paddy/rice farmers in west UP allege that they are being forced to sell their produce at prices half the minimum support price (MSP ) fixed by the government.

The dejected farmers staged protest in several districts in the past few days, demanding that the government assure them of MSP. These protests were reported from Pilibhit, Shahjahanpur, Bareilly and Amroha districts.

Though the MSP of paddy set by the government is Rs 1888 per quintal (100 kgs), farmers complained that they were forced to take Rs 800 less per quintal.

“We went to a paddy procurement centre set up by the government in Khutar with around 200 quintals of paddy. The officials there told us that our paddy had high moisture content so they could not take it. We stayed at the procurement centre for two days before selling the paddy to a middleman at Rs 1100 per quintal,” said Karambir Singh, a farmer from Shahjahanpur.

Singh said that he couldn’t wait for long because he had to pay his labourers and also deposit EMI of a loan. Also he had no means to store his produce so he could not wait for the prices to go up.

Other farmers also alleged that the officials at procurement centres were using the excuse of quality or moisture to avoid or delay purchase from farmers. “The officials make farmers wait for days, forcing them to sell their produce to a middleman at lower price. They then purchase the same paddy from the middleman and share the profit with him,” they said.

District magistrate of Pilibhit Pulkit Khare took action against some officials at procurement centres after finding discrepancies. Similar measures have also been taken by district magistrates of Rampur and Badaun. Yet farmers groups allege that the nexus between officials at procurement centres and middlemen is eating away their profits.