Vol. 17 No. 1
Perception of paddy farmers about minimum support price in Karnataka
Author(s): S. SAHANA, K. KUMAR, R. PATIL AND M.C. VIVEK
Abstract: Paddy is an important staple food crop of southern India. In the recent past, farmers exhibited a transition in cropping pattern from paddy to commercial crops due to non-remunerative and labour intensive nature of the field crop. It is a cause of concern from the viewpoint of food and fodder security. Hence, retention of farmer’s interest in continuing paddy cultivation is indispensable. To retain the interest, both the central and state government intervenes in the form of an announcement of minimum support price. Minimum Support Price (MSP) safeguards, encourages and instils confidence among paddy growers. In this context, the present study was taken up to assess the perception of paddy growers about MSP. For the study, four taluks with the highest area under paddy cultivation in the Shivamogga district of Karnataka were selected, and from each taluk,31 respondents were chosen randomly totalling to124. The result indicated that majority of the respondents had favorable perception about Risk Mitigation (79.03%), Institutional Frontier (66.94%), Decision Making (68.55%), Procedural Hitches (75.00%) and State Intervention (54.03%). More than half of the respondents have agreed thatMSP ensures minimum profit to the farmers (55.65%), MSP will be announced for kharif and rabi season (53.23%) and procurement of the product often gets delayed (54.03%). Majority of the respondents strongly agreed that MSP is announced prior to the sowing season (55.65%) and irregular and untimely payment is the usual practice (50.81). It is interesting to know that 50.83 per cent of the respondents disagreed that MSP comprises of additional benefit from concerned state government. Farmers though knew the MSP, but they could not able to utilize. If we could resolve these shortcomings of the system, it might help farmers in deciding profitable cropping pattern to sustain their livelihood.