Tamil Nadu farmers can prevent a possible rice shortage

Speaking to this newspaper, the Kisan Co-ordination Committee chief Vijay Jawandhia, said that the government should announce incentives for the Tamil Nadu farmers immediately as the southern state produces rice the whole year round.

During his election campaign, Mr Jawandhia said Prime Minister Narender Modi had promised that farmers would get cost price plus 50 per cent of the cost of inputs and production as bonus.

However, he said it has not been implemented yet. With regard to tur dal, Mr Jawandhia said the prices will fall when the fresh crop of tur comes into the market in January.

He said since the government is selling tur dal at Rs 100 per kg, traders don’t see why they should offer higher prices. “So the government must give the farmers at least Rs 6,500 per quintal as minimum support price for tur, if it wants the farmer to grow pulses next season,” he explained.

Tur dal is made from tur and the millers get 75 kg of tur dal from 100 kg of tur.

A study by Crisil on the spike in prices of pulses in three year cycles suggests that "Efforts to prevent hoarding and maintaining price stability will also be necessary to incentivise the farmers to grow pulses.”