Hyderabad: Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the Union government’s decision to raise fertilizer prices, increase in fuel prices, and faulty fixation of Minimum Support Price (MSP) is defaulting on the PM’s promise of doubling farmer’s income.
“Contrary to the policy of doubling of farmers income, to the dismay of one and all input costs are doubled in the last five years and the income of the farming community is declined, causing distress to farmers. Government of India has turned a blind eye to the increasing cost of fertilizers in the last 6 years while encouraging states to take up campaigns to reduce Urea and DAP (Diammonium phosphate) consumption. It is sad to note that the prices of two most consumed fertilizers 28.28.0 and MoP (Muriate of Potash) have increased by more than 50 % and 100 % respectively in the last 90 days itself,” he said.
KCR said that the Union government, instead of bearing the increasing import costs of raw materials and maintaining the prices of fertilizers at an affordable level to the farmers, has chosen to pass the burden to the farmers.
He opined that the Government of India has no reliable mechanism of ensuring crop guarantee to the farmers for their crops apart from announcing MSP and procuring small quantities of crops. “It is also noticed that under the guise of pegging FAQ standards at global levels, farmers are denied MSP prices and compelled to sell at lower prices there by making agriculture non remunerative,” he added.
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