No money in cash crop: 60% maize sold below MSP in Pb
In Bathinda, Punjab, despite official marketing support for wheat and paddy, spring maize growers face challenges as over 60% of the harvest sold below the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 2,090 per quintal. With state agencies purchasing only a minimal amount, private traders dominate sales. Punjab Agricultural University discourages spring and summer citing ecological concerns and recommending.
Bathinda: Wheat and paddy hog all the official marketing support, while ’s third-option cash crops such as spring maize have failed to fetch even the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 2,090 a quintal.
More than 60% of the maize that is harvested betwween mid-June and mid-July was bought below MSP, since private traders were the only buyers. Maize with above-limit moisture content sold for Rs 1,500-1600 a quintal, while the crop with within-limit moisture content fetched the farmers Rs 2,000-2,100 a quintal.
Of the 51.1 lakh quintal maize sold at the state’s grain markets by July 9, the state agencies had bought only 114 quintals, while the private traders had picked the rest, of which 31.1 lakh quintal or more than 60% was bought below MSP.
Of 45.1 lakh quintals maize purchased last year, 44.5 lakh quintals or 99% was purchased below MSP. Punjab’s farmer unions have gone 5 months sitting in protest on the Haryana borders for the legal guarantee of MSP for all the crops based on the C2+50% profit formula.
dissuades farmers
In the 1990s, Punjab’s potato and pea farmers switched to spring maize, and now Punjab Agricultural University’s principal maize breeder dissuades them from growing its summer and spring varieties to save ecology. After harvesting potato in February, the farmers used to sow spring maize for June-July harvest and then the shorter varieties of paddy or basmati. Around 2019, they started growing summer maize, which is sown after harvesting wheat and matures in almost 70 days as green fodder.
The crop feeds Punjab’s 100-plus silage units and 12 ethanol factories. The yield of spring maize is between 35 and 40 quintals from each acre, so the crop is farmers’ favourite. However, PAU’s principal maize breeder Surinder Kaur Sandhu said that: “Spring and summer maize should be dissuaded to protect the state’s ecological health. These water guzzler, dry-season crops will combine with the heatwave effect of climate change to accelerate depletion of the subsoil water due to overdrawing.” She recommended kharif maize in place of summer maize, to ease the pressure on subsoil water. She said: “The spring and summer maize cover about 1.40 lakh hectares this season, with 89,300 hectares under spring maize and 49,800 hectares under summer maize.”
Source Link : https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/maize-prices-in-punjab-plummet-below-msp/articleshow/111619372.cms
