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The Rs 1,100 rate, approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) , represents a Rs 20 rise over the MSP of Rs 1,080 a quintal for the 2008-09 crop. |
Political Policy: With stocks of 284.57 lakh tonnes (lt) in the Central pool as on October 1 being way above the normative minimum buffer of 110 lt for that date, there is enough wheat available for intervention operations. Also, no major elections are in the offing,” official sources pointed out.
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| The main concern in wheat now is the rather limited supply in the open market. During 2008-09, the country produced a record 805.80 lt wheat crop. But of this, as much as 252.91 lt or over 31 per cent was procured by government agencies, leaving little for the market. The Agriculture Minister, Mr Sharad Pawar, said that “The Rs 20 MSP increase should be sufficient to achieve that objective,” the sources added. |
Bhartiya Kisan union-Punjab president Ajmer Singh Lakhowal strongly criticised the government for declaring increase of only Rs 20 in the rate of wheat. He further said that if the Government makes it a principle to give remunerative prices to the farmers for their produce then there will be no scarcity of agricultural produce. |
Further the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today rejected the hike of Rs 20 per quintal and described it as ‘woefully inadequate and unjustified’. “It is a cruel joke with the beleaguered farmers who were already in distress due to low returns on their produce despite exorbitant cost of agricultural inputs incurred by them on diesel, fertilizers, pesticides etc,”he said.
The Chief Minister had earlier personally met the Prime Minister and Union Agricultural Minister and demanded MSP of Wheat at least Rs 1,400 per quintal. ET 061109 |
Other crops : Besides wheat, the CCEA also cleared the MSPs for other rabi crops. The MSPs for rapeseed-mustard and masur (lentil) have been retained at their respective 2008-09 levels of Rs 1,830 and Rs 1,870 a quintal. maize has been raised by Rs 30 to Rs 1,760 a quintal.
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The same for chana (gram), safflower and barley have been raised from Rs 1,730 to Rs 1,760 a quintal, Rs 1,650 to Rs 1,680 a quintal, and Rs 680 to Rs 750 a quintal, respectively.
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| FRP for Sugarcane “includes margin of 45%”-Food Ministry : |
A press release from the food ministry said that the FRP would function as the floor price for sugarcane, Friday’s statement simultaneously reiterates that the farmer will also have to forego a mandated right on mills’ profits. It insists that since the FRP of Rs 129.81 per quintal for sugarcane includes a margin of 45% on account of profit and risk to the farmers over the cost of production of cane, including its cost of transportation, he no longer had the right to claim a share of the profits made by sugar mills as was earlier the case during the SMP regime. ET 071109
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| Raise in Prices of Potatoes by 100% and Onions by 50% : |
Food items shot up by 13.39 per cent during the week ended October 2. Prices of potato and onions have doubled during the one-year period ending October 24, 2009.
The surge in food articles was led by potatoes, which recorded over 100 per cent year-on-year inflation, onions (50 per cent), pulses (24 per cent) and rice (12 per cent). Inflation in the fuel index dipped 6.2 per cent, the same as the week before, according to data released on Thursday by the Government under the new WPI series.
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India may miss power capacity addition target :
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The 11th Plan (2007-12) has set a 78,700 MW capacity addition target. The government is now hopeful that 11th Plan may end with a capacity addition of just 62,374 MW, about 20% below the original target for the plan. Against the targets of 12,039mw and 7,530mw for 2007-08 and 2008-09, the country added 9,263mw and 3,453mw, respectively. For the last ten years, the shortage during peak hours has been well above 10% and the energy shortage of around 11%.
Only 50 per cent of the capacity addition targets were met in the eighth, ninth and tenth Plan periods,
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Energy efficiency can help save Rs 1.2 lakh cr investments :
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At a time when the Indian power sector is facing a funding shortage of over Rs 5 lakh crore, the government has said that an improvement of 20 per cent energy efficiency can help avoid capacity addition of around 30,000 Mw. This, in turn, can save investments worth Rs 1.2 lakh crore. BS -November 05, 2009
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| Rs 21,000 cr investment in fertiliser stuck for want of gas : |
Over Rs 21,000 crore investment in six new fertiliser plants, that would have raised India's urea making capacity by 30 per cent, is stuck for want of natural gas, a senior government official has said. PTI 211009
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| India Eco Summit: More private investment in farming needed : |
The private sector should step in and take the initiative to bring in more investment to address the issues plaguing agriculture, without waiting for government support. This was the broad consensus which emerged from a discussion on Indian agriculture at the India Economic Summit of the World Economic Forum here. |
A few participants said that the private sector does not take the risk to enter the agriculture sector due to low returns and over-regulation by the government. They observed that a better policy environment, where the government allows the open market to flourish and limits its role to just regulation, would be a great enabler for growth in agriculture. |
Kushal Pal Singh, vice-president of the National Institute of Agriculture, said that organised retail is biased towards consumers’ interests rather than farmers, as its objective is to provide ‘best products at the cheapest prices’. “How can farmers get better prices from such retail chains, when they talk about the lowest price,” he asked. |
Singh observed that India needs agri business projects which partner with farmers on a long-term basis. Commenting on water use efficiency in the context of India facing a poor monsoon this year, Margaret Catley-Carlson of Sweden’s Global Water Partnership (GWP) said, “there is no alternative to water, while other agricultural inputs can be created. So there must be more concern for water.” BS 091109 |
