Avg income of farmers reduced and debt increased in MP: Cong

Bhopal: Accusing the BJP government at the centre and the state of "cheating" the farmers, former minister and Congress leader Sachin Yadav said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised them that their income would be doubled by 2022 but it has actually reduced. Referring to NSSO report-2021 on the condition of farmers in rural India, he said average income from farming per day has reduced to Rs 26.67 and average debt on a farmer is over Rs 74,000.
Addressing a press conference at the state Congress headquarters, Yadav said that the report has revealed that small farmers are taking to labour work; share of their income from labour is 39.8 percent and from farming -37.2 percent.
He said, the parliamentary committee on agriculture also disclosed on March 24, 2022, that MP is among the four states of the country, where average income of a farmer family has reduced to Rs 8,339 in 2018-19 compared to Rs 9,740 in 2015-16.
Referring to procurement of rabi crops in the state, Yadav said that farmers have not been paid a single penny against the crop procured from them between March 28 and April 22, 2022. Till today, wheat worth over Rs 6437 crore and gram worth Rs 752 crore have been procured but only Rs 3474 crore has been credited in the accounts of wheat farmers and Rs 328 crore in gram farmers’ account.
He asked if non-payment against procurement of rabi crop was a deliberate ploy of MP government to discourage farmers from selling wheat in the mandis because Russia-Ukraine war has led to favourable condition for wheat export abroad and due to non-payment by the state government, farmers sold their wheat to traders on rates decided by them.
He said in rabi season 2021-22, 17 lakh farmers had sold more than 1.28 metric tonne wheat on MSP in the mandis while in this season, only 3.83 lakh farmers have sold 31.94 lakh MT wheat so far.