New weed in the town, Cotton selling, Food Processing

1. Wheat import in 2006-07 and public distribution resulted in introduction of five new weeds in 10 states. Now Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology is conducting a surveillance project to detect these weeds.

2. CCI and Nafed bought huge quantity of cotton at MSP. But now there is no one to buy it back. So government has instructed them to sell it at lower price while the MSP obligation will be compensated by the Government.

3. Agriculture Ministar Sharad Pawar bats for food processing industry. Sirji, paach saal mein kuch kiya kyoon nahi?

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Pictures

Growing wheat is what you will see around in most of the parts of the countryside right now if you happen to take a drive outside the city. Here are some pictures clicked by Sumit, Golu and Ritesh while we visited the farm after a long time.

Fight over Minimum Support Price

Minimum support prices fixed by the government continue to be a matter of debate for some right reasons.

Sugarcane farmers are asking for increase in the SMP (statutory minimum price) for sugarcane. Their logic: MSP of wheat and other crops has been increased by about 37% which that of sugarcane remains the same. Very valid point as the cost of cultivating has not remain same and has grown in more or less the same proportion to that of wheat and other crops.

MSP of cotton has also been in lime lite ever since they were declared just before the economic slowdown began. Private players are no longer ready to pay the MSP, which is very high according to them. CCI (Cotton Corporation of India) had to come in fill the gap in the supply-demand equation to keep the MSP alive. This is the reason why CCI has been able to procure lots of cotton.

Several people have raised their voice about the ways in which MSP prices ought to be fixed. Here is the link to the article in Businessline by Sharad Joshi.

My take: Its best to leave the prices to be fixed by market forces.

Agriculture growth, useless MSP and Australian wheat

1. The Hindu Businessline writes about slow growth in agriculture. Agricultural policies are to be blamed.

2. Farmers are not benefiting in spite of high MSP prices as open market prices fall much lower. Manipulative actions by traders also hit the profitability.

3. Indian mills can have custom grown wheat from Australia and enter into contract farming and long term agreements. South India flour mills, in particular, prefer Australian wheat not only for its quality but also due to logistical advantage.