AP CM urges PM to hike MSP for paddy to Rs 1000 per quintal

Hyderabad, Oct 11 (UNI) While welcoming the Centre's decision to enhance the Minimum Support Price(MSP) for wheat from Rs 850 to Rs 1000 per quintal, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy today appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to also increase MSP for paddy to Rs 1000 per quintal.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, a copy of which was released to the press here, Dr Reddy said ''unless, we compensate the paddy and wheat farmers adequately and give them the incentive to keep up the production, far from increasing the production, as resolved at the 53rd NDC meeting, there was every danger that we may not be able to maintain the existing levels of production of rice and wheat, as we have seen during the last seven years in our country''.

The hike in MSP for wheat augured well for the food security mission launched by Dr Singh in pursuance of the Resolution passed in the 53rd NDC Meeting, the Chief Minister said, adding that it was, however, inexplicable as to why the MSP for paddy should be kept at as low as Rs 725 per quintal, when it in was everybody's knowledge that the cost of cultivation of paddy was much higher than that of wheat.

''Paddy cultivation requires more water, higher expenditure on labour for transplantation and de-weeding and additional expenditure on pesticides and fertilisers in comparison to wheat cropping'', he pointed out.

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