Arrival and sale of agricultural products less affected during general elections
03-Jun-2024 04:33 PM
New Delhi. Although food inflation remained quite high during the second term of the BJP government as compared to its first term, which increased the difficulties of the common man, but on the other hand it also provided a lot of relief to the farmers.
During the Lok Sabha elections, every possible effort was made by the opposition parties to corner the government on issues like inflation, poverty and unemployment, but it seems that the issue of agricultural crisis dominated the general elections less this time.
The prices of wheat, rice, sugar and pulses have remained at a high level for a long time and the government's efforts to bring it down have not proved very effective so far.
In fact, due to the heavy devaluation of the Indian rupee against the US dollar, the cost of imports from abroad in the country is quite high, but the bigger issue than this is the fall in domestic production and the increasing tendency of farmers to hold stocks.
Farmers are repeatedly demanding the government to give a guarantee (statutory obligation) of the minimum support price (MSP) of agricultural crops, but the government is not ready for this because this can increase food inflation even more. In fact,
the government had already shown the farmers a green garden but later did not pay attention to maintaining its greenery. As a result, farmers started hoarding the stock of some major commodities, which affected its supply in the market and prices kept increasing regularly.
Instead of trying to bring the farmers' produce to the market, the government tightened its grip on the industry and trade sector, but it did not yield any meaningful results.
There was an attempt to increase the import of pulses from abroad, but this policy also did not prove effective in controlling prices.
Farmers have also hoarded the stock of wheat, due to which its market price remains strong. The decision to ban the export of wheat, white non-basmati rice and sugar has also failed to give the expected results.