New Delhi: While several farmers' bodies had taken the NDA government's grand announcement of hiking minimum support price (MSP) of kharif crops by more than 50 per cent, with a pinch of salt by finding fault with the calculation on which the new prices were based, the umbrella body of 194 such organisations — All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKCC) — has threatened to launch a nation-wide agitation against the decision, terming it as a “fraud played by the government on farmers”.
Convenor of AIKCC, V.M. Singh has said that a meeting of its working group has been called on July 13, while its General Body will meet on July 14 to chalk out the future plan of action for a possible agitation "against this betrayal by the Government".
The body has claimed that the NDA Government has based the hike in MSP for kharif crops on the A2+FL formula, which was also used by the previous UPA regime for fixing the MSP for the Rabi season of 2013-14.
"By no stretch of imagination is this remunerative or historic but is a fraud played by the Government on the farmers," a statement issued by AIKCC alleged.
The farmers umbrella body said that the MSP should have been calculated on the basis of the comprehensive cost ( C2) formula which had been recommended by the M.S. Swaminathan Committee, instead of the A2+FL formula, used by the Centre.
The A2+FL formula takes into account only the actual cost plus imputed value of family labour in the production of a crop. Whereas the C2 formula factors in several other costs, including imputed rent on land and interest on capital, making the cost of production higher than what the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) bases its recommendation.
On this basis, AIKCC has claimed that what the Modi Government announced last week was not a hike in MSP, but only the 50 per cent increase on production cost of crops.
"The claim of the Government is false and is a betrayal of the promise made by the BJP and the Prime Minister to the farmers of the country. The formula of A2+FL by which the MSP for Kharif crops 2018-19 was increased, is nothing but the same formula by which the Manmohan Singh's Government fixed the MSP for the Rabi season 2013-14. By no stretch of imagination is this remunerative or historic but is a fraud played by the Government on the farmers. They promised for C2 and nothing short of it is acceptable to AIKSCC," said the statement.
