Ragi farmers in Karnataka hit hard by procurement policy

‘Farmers are selling their produce around 35% less than the MSP since government is delaying procurement’

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in the budget that 2022-23 is the ‘International Year of Millets’ and promised measures for their promotion. But in Karnataka, there are fears that farmers might again shy away from cultivating ragi, a millet consumed in the southern districts. While this millet had seen growth in the past few years, the crop is being hit by the lack of farmer-friendly procurement policy.

Since 2014-15 when the humble millet was introduced in the Public Distribution System (PDS) and subsequently Minimum Support Price (MSP) was introduced for ragi in 2015-16, the area under ragi cultivation had seen an increase by 14% and production increased by 7%. Also, with high-yielding crop varieties, production has gone up. 

In fact, the decade before 2014 had seen an annual decline of area under cultivation by around 2% from – from about 9.38 lakh hectares in 2005 to 7.08 lakh hectares in 2014.