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Bhubaneswar: Even as the political pot in Odisha over MSP has attained the boiling point on Friday when BJD RS MP Sasmit Patra took pot-shots at BJP for not implementing the Swaminathan Commission report recommendations in Toto, Patra hit the rhetoric crescendo on the floor of the Upper House.
Speaking loud and clear he claimed that Odisha government had demanded an MSP of Rs 2,930/quintal for its farmers.
“The State Assembly had passed a unanimous resolution to increase the MSP of Paddy to Rs 2,930 per quintal,” claimed Patra.
Peeling off the political rhetoric and a reality check show that sans the unanimous resolution (political), the Odisha government had never placed the cost of production figure of Rs 2,930 per quintal before the CACP (Commission of Agriculture Cost and Prices) – the body that estimates the MSP for crops, including paddy.
Here is a big bombshell. The CACP data reveals that while for the two successive years (2019-20 and 2020-21), Odisha government didn’t supply the projected per quintal cost of paddy produced in the State; on the other hand, in the two preceding years (2017-18 and 2018-19), the projected cost of production per quintal supplied to the CACP stood at only Rs 2,334.
While the headline MSP offer of Rs 2,930/quintal looks an attractive political offer for the political parties, but such banner politicking over MSP has simply buried the existing grave farm crisis at hand in the sands.
WHY ODISHA FARMERS BEAR LOSS?
For Odisha, the distressing home-truth is the cost of production of paddy per hectare is the third highest in the country. The table is led by Maharashtra and West Bengal.
SAMPLE THE TRAGEDY:
Odisha VS Andhra Pradesh
The tragedy is farmers in Odisha invest fewer amounts than their Andhra counterparts to cultivate a hectare land. But when it comes to the cost of producing a quintal paddy, the State farmers incur a higher cost than their AP counterparts.
And when CACP announces MSP for paddy based on a national average value, farmers in Odisha receive a very meagre net return over their produces vis-à-vis AP farmers.
HOW THIS IS POSSIBLE?
Consider The MSP Equation:
Andhra Pradesh: Which has submitted the 2020-21 cost of production estimates to the CACP, has a cost of cultivation (A2 + Family Labour (FL)) of around Rs 54,542 per hectare.
Odisha: In contrast, the cost of cultivation per hectare had been estimated less at Rs 45,818 per hectare.
However, when the numbers were translated into the cost of production (CoP) per quintal, the arithmetic turns skewed.
Andhra Pradesh: CACP had estimated CoP at Rs 1,591/quintal.
Odisha: The State government has not supplied any projected cost to the CACP for two consecutive years. So, CACP taking into account earlier cost and production estimates had estimated the CoP higher at Rs 1,831/quintal.
Big Takeaway: Despite the lower cost of cultivation in Odisha, the farmer in the State bears a higher production cost.
The Consequence: When it comes to gross returns for farmers over the cost it incurred to cultivate a hectare land, farmers in Andhra Pradesh earned a handsome return of 68 per cent over the A2+FL costs.
But Odisha farmers could see a return of mere 7 per cent – a hand to mouth return. (see the image above)
REASON BEHIND TOPSY TURVY
The CACP report has attributed the topsy-turvy paddy arithmetic in the State to lower yield per hectare.
It said, “When the yield rate in AP is estimated at 58.7 quintals per hectare, the figure stands at 36.8 quintals in Odisha.”
WHAT AILS PRODUCTIVITY IN ODISHA?
The main reason behind lower productivity is the lack of irrigation access to the agricultural operations in Odisha, reveals the CACP report 2020. The bandwagon effect of poor irrigation coverage is - low seed replacement ratio, lesser fertiliser and pesticide use, below par investment in farm mechanisation – which together will pull down the yield per hectare.
It says,
“It is observed that both levels and growth in productivity in rain-fed areas is much lower and variable compared to those in irrigated regions. Lack of irrigation makes agricultural operations riskier as it is totally exposed to the uncertainties of monsoon and discourages investment by farmers. Thus poor productivity of crops in rain-fed regions emphasizes the importance of irrigation.”
Deducing empirical evidence, the report further pointed out that the benefits of expanding irrigation can be assessed from the fact that there is a high degree of positive correlation (0.9) between foodgrain productivity and irrigation coverage.
It then cited the instance of Punjab, which has the highest irrigation coverage (99%) and also had the highest productivity (46.6 QTL/ha).
In contrast, both irrigation coverage (18%) and foodgrains productivity (10.7 QTL/ha) was the lowest in Maharashtra.
The irrigation coverage in Odisha stands at mere around 27 per cent.
Despite the country’s fifth-largest producer of rice, Odisha failed to figure in the top-10 states, which included neighbouring Chhattisgarh, in the indices of the total area covered under micro-irrigation under PMKSY Per Drop More Crop scheme. (see the image above)
The Final Takeaway: Instead of taking the rhetoric course over MSP, Odisha government needs to fix the ails gripping the paddy production in the State.
