Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Wednesday, Oct 02, 2002
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Wednesday, Oct 02, 2002 |
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Agri-Biz & Commodities
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Agricultural Policy Drought bonus for farmers — Kharif procurement prices hiked Rs 5-20 per quintal Our Bureau
NEW DELHI, Oct. 1 THE Centre has announced an additional `drought relief' ranging from Rs 5 to 20 per quintal for various kharif crops to be marketed during the current year. The announcement follows the meeting of various Chief Ministers and leaders of the ruling alliance with the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, on Monday. The procurement price for `common' and `grade A' paddy for the 2002-03 kharif marketing season beginning October has been fixed at Rs 550 and Rs 580 per quintal respectively, marking a Rs 20 per quintal increase over their existing minimum support prices (MSP) of Rs 530 and Rs 560 per quintal, respectively. The procurement price of jowar, maize and ragi have been hiked by Rs 5 per quintal (from Rs 485 to Rs 490 per quintal), while that of bajra has gone up by Rs 10 per quintal (from Rs 485 to Rs 495 per quintal). Agriculture Ministry officials, however, made it clear that the MSPs of all these crops had not been changed and the increase in procurement price was in the form of drought bonus. The procurement price of tur (arhar) has been raised from Rs 1,320 to Rs 1,325 per quintal, while in the case of urad and moong, the increase has been from Rs 1,320 to Rs 1,335 per quintal (inclusive of a Rs 10 per quintal hike earlier announced in the MSP itself). Similarly, while the basic MSP has been raised from Rs 1,340 to Rs 1,355 per quintal for groundnut-in-shell, from Rs 1,185 to Rs 1,195 per quintal for sunflower seed and from Rs 1,400 to Rs 1,450 per quintal for sesamum, the effective procurement prices during the new season for these crops following Monday's decision are Rs 1,360 per quintal (groundnut-in shell), 1,210 per quintal (sunflower seed) and Rs 1,455 per quintal (sesamum). The MSP of nigerseed has already been raised from Rs 1,100 to Rs 1,120 per quintal and there has been no bonus declared over and above this. While the Centre has refrained from increasing the MSP for soyabean and cotton, it has, however, decided to offer an additional bonus of Rs 10 and Rs 20 per quintal, respectively. Thus, the procurement price for yellow and black soyabean will be Rs 895 and Rs 805 per quintal, respectively (up from their corresponding MSPs of Rs 885 and Rs 795 per quintal, respectively). On the other hand, the procurement price of cotton in the 2002-03 marketing season has been fixed at Rs 1,695 (for F-414/H-777/J34 varieties) and Rs 1,895 per quintal (for H-4 varieties), as against their current MSPs of Rs 1,675 and Rs 1,875 per quintal, respectively (which have been left unchanged).
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