A worker unloads sacks of wheat grain at a warehouse in Bhopal on Friday
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) on Thursday hit out at Centre’s decision to raise the minimum support price (MSP) for wheat by just Rs 25 per quintal for the 2027-28 marketing season, calling the 0.97% increase grossly inadequate in the face of rising input costs and erratic monsoon conditions. The farmers’ organisation demanded a legally guaranteed MSP based on Dr M S Swaminathan’s formula of C2+50% (comprehensive cost of production plus 50%), seeking that wheat MSP be raised to at least Rs 2,744 per quintal and gram MSP to Rs 7,391 per quintal. “Govt raised its own cost of wheat by 2% and the farmer’s price by less than 1%, then called it a 106% profit. AIKS argued that govt’s claim of a 106% return was based on the A2+FL formula, which included paid-out expenses and the imputed value of family labour but excluded the rental value of owned land and interest on fixed capital. The organisation further said Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) had estimated wheat’s C2 cost in Maharashtra at Rs 3,091 per quintal last season. At the newly announced MSP of Rs 2,610, farmers would still be short by Rs 481 per quintal against that benchmark, it said.
That is not a margin, it is a cruel joke,” he said. A trade deal without protection is a knife on that paper,” AIKS general secretary Ravula Venkaiah said. It also called for universal procurement of all rabi crops, implementation of price-deficiency payments, a rollback of diesel price hikes and parliamentary scrutiny of trade agreements affecting agriculture. AIKS president Rajan Kshirsagar accused govt of inflating farmers’ returns through selective cost calculations. The organisation alleged that procurement caps and AgriStack-linked conditions were excluding tenant farmers, sharecroppers, women cultivators and adivasi farmers from govt procurement networks. Expressing concern over ongoing trade negotiations, AIKS warned that reduced tariffs on imported agricultural commodities could depress domestic farm-gate prices. “An MSP without procurement is a price on paper.