While the Center has announced its decision to withdraw the three farm laws, Delhi farmers are unwilling to end their strike until they are formally withdrawn and their demand on the MSP is met.
“Whoever pays for it (MSP), the Center or the state, will soon go bankrupt,” Shetkari Sanghatana chief Ghanwat told ET. “This is a very dangerous and unsustainable request. If accepted, the country would go bankrupt within two years.”
As well as not being financially feasible, it would lead to unrest and chaos, he warned. “Right now, if the government accepts the application for 23 crops, other farmers would also submit similar applications for their crops. There would be unrest every other day, in all other states asking that certain crops not are not in the MSP Once you have given the MSP to some, you must also give it to others, â€he said.
The farmer chief said the government also does not have the infrastructure to source or sell the crops. “The country’s buffer stock limit is currently 41 lakh tonnes, but the government has had to procure 110 lakh tonnes of wheat and paddy. The government does not have the capacity to store so much grain, so it is kept out in the open, wet in the rain, and rotten. Imagine if we added a few more crops to the MSP list. How would they get them, where would they store them? ”
He added: “To my knowledge, no country does this; they give grants but not the MSP and certainly not for so many crops. to their demands on the three agricultural laws, so the government will also cede on the MSP. He is now the government baby, they made it themselves.
Ghanwat said a better alternative would be for the government not to step in and lower the prices of agricultural products when they rise.
“The government starts importing as soon as the price increases domestically and also imposes export limits. How will the farmer win if the government continues to artificially lower prices? Importing and exporting should be the business of traders, not the government, â€he said.
