22 Nov , 2021 By : monika singh
Farmer leader Anil Ghanwat, a member of the panel set up by the Supreme Court to study the three farm laws, said the demand to extend minimum support price to 23 crops, if agreed to, will drive the country to bankruptcy.
While the Centre has announced its decision to withdraw the three farm laws, farmers in Delhi are unwilling to end their strike before those are formally withdrawn and their demand on MSP is met.
"Whoever pays for it (MSP), the Centre or the state, will go bankrupt soon," Shetkari Sanghatana leader Ghanwat told ET. "This is a very dangerous demand and is not sustainable. If agreed to, then within two years the country would go bankrupt."
Besides the move not being financially feasible, it would lead to unrest and chaos, he warned. "Right now, if the government agrees to the demand of 23 crops, then other farmers would also come up with similar demands for their crops. There would be agitations every other day, in every other state asking for some crops not in MSP to be included in it. Once you have given MSP to some, you have to give it to others, too," he said.
The farmer leader said the government also doesn't have the infrastructure to procure the crops or sell them. "The country's buffer stock limit is currently 41 lakh tonnes, but the government has had to procure 110 lakh tonnes of wheat and paddy. The government does not have the capacity to store this much grains, so these are kept out in the open, getting wet in the rain and getting rotten. Imagine if we add some more crops to the MSP list. How would they procure it, where would they store?"
He added: "As per my knowledge, no country does this; they give subsidies but not MSP and definitely not for so many crops. The farmers are not going to relent now easily because they feel that they have managed to get the government to bend to their demands on the three farm laws, so the government will also yield on the MSP. This is now the government's baby, they have brought it on themselves."
Ghanwat said a better alternative would be for the government to not intervene and bring down the prices of farm produce when they go up.
"The government starts importing as soon as the price rises domestically and also puts export limits. How will the farmer earn if the government keeps on bringing down the prices artificially? Importing and exporting should be the job of the traders and not the government," he said.
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