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CM appeals to PM to solve the problems of AP farmers
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The Chief Minister Mr.N.Chandrababu Naidu urged the Centre to intervene in the market and take required policy decisions to stabilise the prices and protect the domestic farmers in view of the distress conditions prevailing in marketing of agriculture commodities.
In addition to a letter written to Prime Minister Mr.Atal Behari Vajpayee the Chief Minister also had a telephonic conversation with him. In his letter Mr Naidu requested for the relaxation of quality specifications for procurement by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) in view of the damage caused to paddy crop due to heavy rains/floods. Three to eight per cent relaxation for shriveled and immature grains for paddy, from 14 per cent to 15 per cent moisture for rice, foreign matter from 1.5 to 2.5 per cent for paddy, damaged, discolored, sprouted and weevil led grain from 3 per cent to 8 per cent for rice.
He urged the Centre to step up the procurement of paddy by opening procurement centres in all the districts and to accept the total quantity of paddy offered by the farmers without any restrictions as the farmers were not getting even Minimum Support Price (MSP) now .
There should be a mechanism to speed up the procurement of rice by the FCI to enable the millers to sell the available rice stocks to the FCI and in turn procure more paddy from farmers. More space should be created in the godowns by transporting rice stocks from Andhra Pradesh at the rate of at least four lakh tones of rice per month for a period of eight months to other rice consuming states immediately. Additional godown space may also be hired by the FCI in the State (procurement target is 55 lakh MTs). The state government was also willing to offer all the available godowns of Marketing department and State Warehousing Corporation. The Railways should also provide more number of rakes for movement of rice from Andhra Pradesh to other States, he said.
The rice from Northern States should not be moved to other Southern states as it was done in the past six months (in view of the problem of storage space). The FCI may also be instructed to construct new godowns of at least two lakh tones capacity in Andhra Pradesh on priority.
The Government of India may also consider exemption of various duties/taxes on export of rice and encourage exports to other countries in view of the surplus stocks of rice available.
With respect to Maize, the growers were not getting even MSP of Rs.445/- per quintal during the current harvest season. With the intervention of Government of India, procurement centres have been opened by Food Corporation of India. However, the quantity of maize procured by the FCI was not significant (10,952 MTs only). In view of this problem, recently A.P.MARKFED was authorized to procure under decentralized procurement programme. The AP MARKFED has also commenced procurement a few days ago. However, the FCI did not release the advance amount though instructions were issued by the Government of India to release Rs.5.45 crore immediately to sustain procurement operations by AP MARKFED. Therefore, instructions may be issued to the FCI to release the advance amount of Rs.5.45 crore to AP MARKFED and also to continue maize procurement by FCI, the Chief Minister said.
One of the main reasons for fall of maize price was imposition of 16 per cent excise duty on the starch manufactured from maize (There was no excise duty on the starch produced from tapioca). Due to this, the maize was not purchased by starch exporters. This may be corrected by exempting excise duty on the starch manufactured from maize also on par with tapioca.
Regarding Oilpalm, he said that the prices crashed during November, 1999, and the Government of India approved Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) for Oilpalm but restricted the quantity to 45,000 tonnes. In view of the distress conditions, AP OILFED was instructed to continue the procurement over and above the permitted quantity of 45,000 tonnes. A quantity of 85,000 MTs of FFBs was already procured. There was a need to procure further upto the end of December, 2000. Therefore approval may be given for procuring additional quantity of 62,000 tonnes under MIS.
About Soyabean, he said it was one of the major crops raised by tribal farmers in Andhra Pradesh. During the current season, the farmers were not getting MSP (Rs.865/- per quintal). In view of the marketing problem, the TRIFED may also be appointed as a procurement agency in the scheduled areas of Andhra Pradesh and NAFED may be appointed for procuring Soyabean outside the scheduled areas. There was a need to commence procurement programme immediately by TRIFED and NAFED in the State for ensuring reasonable price to farmers.
During the current Kharif season, the production of castor has increased substantially resulting in the low prices. Castor was mostly grown in the drought prone areas. In view of the distress, it was necessary to take up Market Intervention Operations. The STC of India may be directed to procure castor at reasonable prices and to export the various consuming countries.
The Groundnut farmers suffered severely during the last two years, due to the drought during Kharif-1999 and pest during Kharif 2000. The problem was aggravated by the falling prices of Groundnut pod during the current year. The Crop insurance claims (Rs.9.63 crore) of Groundnut farmers released to Kharif, 1999 in several mandals of Andhra Pradesh were yet to be settled.
Mr Naidu said in view of the above mentioned problems, there was a need to find a solution to the bleak crisis of un-remunerative prices faced not only by Oilpalm growers but also by oil seed farmers. The import policies and the custom duties adopted by Government of India have resulted in depressed edible oil prices and this in turn had seriously affected the economy of Oilpalm growers and Oil seed farmers. Edible oil imports between November 1999 and October 2000 had gone
up to 45 lakh tonnes. As import duty on CPO continued to remain unchanged at 16.5 per cent, India has imported 8.3 lakh tonnes of CPO against nil import in the previous oil year. It was consequently suggested that concessional rates on import of crude palm oil should be stopped. The unabated level of edible oil imports and depressed prices of edible oils have affected oilpalm growers, soyabean, sunflower and groundnut farmers.
The Chief Minister sought the orders from the Centre for an immediate substantial increase of custom duties on crude and refined edible oils so that oil palm growers and oil seed farmers get remunerative prices. Immediate steps must be taken to restrict the imports of edible oils, so that the interests of the farmers of Andhra Pradesh were protected.
The Andhra Pradesh has an area of one lakh hectares under coconut with a production of 1,009 million nuts per year. The price of coconuts which was ruling at Rs.4,000 per 1000 nuts during 1998 has crashed to Rs.1,000. The minimum support price for edible Copra was presently Rs.3,250 quintal for Grade-I and Rs.3,010 per quintal for Grade-II. So far 9,170 metric tonnes of copra valued at Rs 27.61 crore have been procured in Andhra Pradesh by NAFED/AP OILFED. In view of the increased cost of production, it would be desirable that MSP of Rs.5,500 for Grade-I edible copra and Rs.5,200 for Grade-II edible copra is approved at the earliest. The NAFED should be directed to procure more quantity of copra till coconut price reaches the 1998 level of Rs.4000/1000 nuts.
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