BJP Kerala chief Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Monday wrote to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, requesting the state government to exclude the southern state from its directive to stop additional bonus paid to paddy farmers.
The Kerala BJP has appealed to the Center to restore the paddy bonus”The state government has failed to provide timely and adequate financial support to paddy farmers. As a result, many farmers are forced to depend on private moneylenders to meet the cost of cultivation, resulting in increased indebtedness and severe financial stress,” he said.
This comes a day after Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan slammed the central government for suggesting the state freeze bonuses to paddy farmers over and above the minimum support price (MSP), tantamount to issuing a challenge to farmers.
On January 9, the Center had written to the Kerala Chief Secretary asking the state to review the paddy bonus policy, saying that the rice stocks exceeded the requirements of the Public Distribution System (PDS). Continuation of bonus payments would create a significant and recurring burden on the government exchequer, the letter claimed.
However, Chandrasekhar claimed that issues cited in the Union Finance Ministry’s communication such as surplus production, excess central stocks and depletion of groundwater “are technically and substantively not applicable to the agricultural reality of Kerala.”
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“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.
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.
While the BJP state president alleged that the state government has not announced any additional bonus over and above the MSP, the Kerala chief minister on Sunday insisted that they are collecting paddy from farmers by paying the extra money. ₹6.31 per kilogram. Central government is giving ₹23.69 per kg for procurement of paddy. Vijayan expressed apprehensions that the Centre’s directive is the first step towards opening up the market for American agricultural products as part of the India-US trade deal.
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The BJP chief’s letter highlights uneasiness within the state BJP unit and among workers, particularly with the upcoming elections in Kerala, about the prospect of a farmers’ response.
In 2023-24, paddy constituted 7.1% of the state’s total cropped area. The 2023 figures 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 small-scale agriculture and large-scale plantations, mainly focusing on cash crops such as rubber, tea, coffee, coconut and other spices. Paddy is the major foodgrain produced in the state, but its cultivation is less than that of cash crops.
