New Delhi: The Congress party on Wednesday raised the issue of the soybean farmers of the state still not getting the minimum support price (MSP) for their produce despite former chief minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis promising it over a decade ago.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X that it was in 2013 that Fadnavis promised the Maharashtra farmers “a price of Rs 6,000 per quintal for soybean”. Similarly, he recalled that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was then CM of Gujarat, had promised to implement the Swaminathan Commission Report that granted legal status to MSP.
However, Ramesh said a decade later in 2024, “soybean is trading at about Rs 4,200 per quintal — far below Mr. Fadnavis’s Rs 6,000 and below the MSP of Rs 4,892”. He charged that “there is perhaps no constituency that the BJP has backstabbed harder than farmers.”
Stating that the BJP has “provided zero assistance with rising input prices”, the Congress leader added that “they have also refused to grant legal status to MSP”.
'Farmers Face A Double Whammy,' Says Congress Leader Jairam Ramesh
Ramesh said the farmers “face a double whammy” since during a drought, they suffer from poor yields, and when the rain is abundant - like in 2024 - they suffer due to sudden crash in prices due to excess produce. In the case of soybean, Ramesh said, it is “grown on an estimated 5 million hectares in Maharashtra”.
Similarly, cotton, another crop whose prices have crashed in recent years and is selling below MSP, is grown on another 4 million hectares.
