Farmers of Punjab and Haryana today threatened to reduce the area under wheat cultivation in the upcoming sowing season protesting the "miniscule" hike in minimum support price (MSP) of the crop.
Dubbing the latest wheat MSP increase as inadequate, farm experts sought a minimum hike of Rs 50 per quintal instead of Rs 20 a quintal in the wake of high inflation and increase in farmers' input cost.
With a combined output of over 260 lakh tonnes Punjab and Haryana are the biggest wheat contributors to the central pool.
"We completely reject the hike of just Rs 20 per quintal on wheat MSP. It is a cruel blow on farmers who leave no stone unturned in feeding the country," Bhartiya Kisan Union (Lakhowal group) President Ajmer Singh Lakhowal said.
"We will be asking the farmers this time that they should reduce the area under wheat as it is difficult to sow crop because of high input cost and low realisation," BKU (Rajewal group) President Balbir Singh Rajewal said.
A group of farmers led by Rajewal will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee next week to bring to their notice their protest against the low increase in MSP.
The government today raised wheat MSP by Rs 20 a quintal to Rs 1,120 a quintal for rabi season 2010-11.
Questioning the process of determining the MSP, farmers alleged that the centre has no scientific method to find out the actual input cost which could be used as the base for fixing the MSP.
"The cost of fertilisers, insecticide, labour have increased manifold but hike in MSP is not commensurate with it," Rajewal said, adding that they are seeking an MSP of over Rs 1,800 per quintal.
"Time will come soon when farmers will avoid sowing wheat crop because of rising input cost which can ultimately lead to foodgrain crisis," said Haryana State Kisan Club General Secretary VK Kapoor.
Farm economist SS Johal also termed Rs 20 per quintal increase in MSP as insufficient and said that it should be hiked by Rs 50 per quintal keeping in mind high inflation and increasing input cost.