Farmers in Nadia, Murshidabad, North Dinajpur, North 24-Parganas and Hooghly staged demonstrations, blocked roads and set jute bales on fire on Saturday to demand a hike in the minimum support price (MSP) of their produce.
The farmers claimed that the Centre’s MSP of Rs 5,050 per quintal of jute was far below the production cost of over Rs 8,000.
Several peasants’ organisations have appealed to the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Price (CACP), an apex price-recommending authority under the ministry of agriculture and farmers’ welfare, to increase the MSP.
With no immediate response from the Centre, farmer outfits are planning a bigger movement.
On Thursday, farmers of Bengal’s jute belt held a convention in Nadia’s Debagram and formed the “Paschimbanga Paat Chashi Sangram Committee”. The committee will stage a demonstration to hike MSP outside the Jute Corporation of India’s Calcutta office on October 9.
High production cost has already reduced jute farming. This year jute was grown on 1,05,000 hectares of land in comparison to 1,16,000 hectares last year, sources said.
Bengal contributes almost 50 per cent of the jute produced globally every year.
Jute farmers largely depend on the Centre’s MSP.
“It is unfortunate that the CACP did not take into consideration ground realities while recommending the MSP,” said Nadia farmer Sabir Mondal, who joined the demonstration on Saturday.
Vice-president of the newly formed Paschimbanga Paat Chashi Sangram Committee Kamaluddin Sheikh said: “Jute growers toil hard but incur huge losses every year. The MSP is too low to meet the production cost. A farmer also has to pay for transport to the purchase points of the Jute Corporation of India.”
