Chennai, June 9 (BPNS)

The Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), the political arm of the powerful Vanniyar community says that the hike in the minimum support price for paddy is not enough. The party founder leader, Dr. S. Ramadoss in a statement on Thursday said that the MSP for paddy, common, and A-grade varieties was increased to Rs 2040 and 2160 a  quintal and with the state government’s incentive price it would be procured at Rs 2115 and Rs 2160 respectively.

The PMK leader however said that even though the revision of MSP was higher than that of the previous year, it was of no benefit to the farmers. Dr. Ramadoss urged the central and state governments to increase the MSP of paddy and the incentive price so that paddy could be procured at Rs 3000 per quintal. He said that such procurement will only benefit the farmers of the state who are reeling under severe crop loss and the backlog of debts of the pandemic period.

He said,” When the cost of production of paddy is estimated to be around Rs 1986 a quintal,  this year only if the MSP is fixed at Rs 2979 a quintal, by fixing a profit of 50% on top of production cost, it will be beneficial to the farmers to some extent.”

The PMK leader said that the party would conduct awareness programmes on the woes of the paddy farmers and why the minimum support price fixed by the state government for this year was not enough for the survival of the paddy farmers.