They said it was wrongly perceived that farmers in states like Punjab and Haryana were getting the full MSP for crops, when in reality, rate cuts were imposed on crops citing mismatch in quality specifications or capping of total purchase per acre.
The farmer leaders from Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu had come here to meet the members of the Supreme Court- appointed committee, headed by Justice Nawab Singh (retired).
This committee was constituted in September 2024 to amicably resolve the grievances of farmers.
Complaints of crops being sold below MSP were made by cotton farmers from Gujarat, groundnut farmers from Rajasthan and paddy growers from Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
In states, where the Bhavantar schemes (price stabilisation fund schemes) have been implemented, farmer leaders rued that the compensation given to farmers did not add up to the MSP fixed for a crop.
Jagjit Singh Dallewal, convener of the SKM (non-political) that had held a year-long stir on Punjab border points with Haryana over the MSP demand, said they were seeking legal guarantee on the MSP for all crops as “farmer suicides were on the rise”.
He said farmers had suffered losses to the tune of over Rs 43 lakh crore due to the denial of assured price for crops.
“A section of people keep saying that anything between Rs 20,000 crore and Rs 1.50 lakh crore is needed for this and that it will be a financial burden on the country, but then why area loans worth thousands of crores given to corporate houses waived,” he asked.
He cited instances of paddy being sold below the MSP in Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Tarn Taran.
Haryana farmer leader Abhimanyu Kohar said, “Farmers sold bajra at Rs 1,000 per quintal below the MSP. But the price differentiation given to them was just Rs 575,” he said, adding that in paddy, the false claims of high moisture content led to farmers suffering a loss of Rs 150- Rs 250 per quintal.
Anil Patel, a farmer leader from Madhya Pradesh, said that in his state, 100 per cent paddy was not bought on the MSP.
“There is a ceiling on how much paddy the government will buy from each farmer by fixing the quantity on per acre basis. Even maize was not bought on MSP, which led to farmers suffering losses worth crores of rupees,” he said.
Farmer leaders Rajinder Singh and Anil Talan from Uttar Pradesh said the government was purchasing directly from traders, and not from farmers. As a result, traders got the full MSP, but farmers got much less than the MSP, they added
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