Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Kerala chief Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Monday asked Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to exclude the state from her directive to stop paying additional bonus to paddy farmers.
Workers wining paddy after harvesting (PTI file)Chandrasekhar’s claim came a day after Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan attacked the BJP-led central government for telling the state. Stop giving bonus to paddy farmers Over and above the Minimum Support Price (MSP).
On Sunday, the chief minister said it was collecting paddy from farmers by paying extra ₹6.31 per kg above MSP.
On January 9, Union Expenditure Secretary V Vualnam asked the state government to review the paddy bonus policy, noting that the rice stock exceeded the requirement for the Public Distribution System (PDS). Vualnam argued that continuing to pay bonuses under the circumstances would create a significant and recurring burden on the government exchequer.
Chandrasekhar said the issues cited in the Finance Ministry’s communication, such as surplus production, excess central stock and depletion of groundwater, are not applicable to the agricultural reality in Kerala.
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Kerala has witnessed a long-term decline in paddy cultivation and production over decades and is not a surplus producing state contributing to excess central stocks, he argued.
“Rice harvesting in Kerala is conducted under a unique framework with unique agro-climatic conditions, small land holdings, declining production levels and primarily to sustain cultivation for food security rather than surplus production,” the BJP leader said in the letter, requesting the state to consider its food security and specific food security separately.
The state BJP chief’s letter reflects uneasiness within the state unit about the risk of farmers’ backlash ahead of assembly elections expected in just a few months.
In 2023-24, paddy accounted for 7.1% of the state’s total cropped area.
Figures for 2023 show that the area under paddy cultivation in the state has declined by 39% in the last two decades.
Agriculture in Kerala is characterized by a mixture of smallholder and large-scale plantations, primarily focused on cash crops such as rubber, tea, coffee, coconut and other spices. Rice is the primary foodgrain of the state, but its production is much lower than that of cash crops.
