Why’s dal costly? APC report can give insights

Kalaburgi: The Agriculture Price Commission will submit its ‘Perspective Crop Report’ to the state government by the first week of November, according to Commission Chairman T.N. Prakash Kammaradi.

Speaking to mediapersons here, Mr Kammaradi said the report would dwell upon the cost of production of seventeen major crops being grown in the state, price fluctuation , increase or decrease in the area of cultivation for each major crop, actual benefit to the farmers during the last ten years.

The report which has already been finalized has been sent to the district officials of agriculture and horticulture department for their comments. “In the first week of November the executive committee of the Commission will hold its meeting and submit the report to the government”, Mr Kammaradi stated. Expressing his concern over decrease in the area of cultivation for ragi and jowar, Mr Kammaradi underscored the need for giving a thrust to these crops. While the area of ragi cultivation has come down by 2.37 lakh hectares during the last 10 years, that of jowar has declined by 4.63 lakh hectares. Similarly the area of tur crop has seen a steep decline of 50,000 hectares in Kalaburagi district alone and in the case of oil seeds, the production has come down by 75 per cent.

Welcoming the decision of the state government to supply ragi and jowar under the Anna Bhagya Scheme, Mr Kammaradi hoped that this would spur the cultivation of these crops. “We would need two lakh tonnes of ragi and around one lakh tones of jowar this year”, he said and pleaded with the government to bring tur dal also under the Anna Bhagya scheme.

Attributing steep fluctuations in the prices as well as crop losses to unplanned cultivation by farmers, Mr Kammaradi mooted the idea of evolving ‘Crop Planning’ for each district which should be enforced by the CEO of Zilla Panchayat.

“This committee headed by CEO should decide what crops should grow, in how many acres etc taking into account the market demand and rainfall conditions”, he added.

Expressing his concern over majority of farmers not getting the benefit of Minimum Support Price(MSP) fixed by the government at APMCs, Mr Kammaradi stated that the Commission would recommend to the state government to ensure ‘legislative protection’ to the MSP. “It’s unfortunate that we have failed to effectively enforce the MSP policy in APMCs. If in any AMPC, the agriculture produce is sold below the MSP, cases should be booked against officers as well as traders”, Mr Kammaradi asserted.