Farmers said they will continue their demonstrations after their initial conversation with the Haryana education minister and authorities ended in failure.
Farmers in Kurukshetra protest against selling sunflower seeds at MSP
The farmers are protesting the government’s decision not to purchase sunflower seeds at the minimum support price (MSP), and Bhartiya Kisan Union (Charuni) has spoken out in their defence. If the government does not take action, the union has vowed to escalate the protest and obstruct National Highway 44 on June 6.
Farmers said they will continue their demonstrations after their first conversation with the Haryana education minister and authorities ended in failure.
Notably, the Kurukshetra district government stated on Monday that commercial sunflower seed purchases have begun at five mandis in the area at a cost of ₹4,800 per quintal from the Haryana State Co-operative Supply and Marketing Federation Limited (HAFED).
144 quintals of sunflower seeds were purchased on Monday, according to a statement from Shantanu Sharma, deputy commissioner of Kurukshetra. An additional ₹1,000 per quintal would be paid to farmers, increasing the total payment to ₹5,800 per quintal compared to the MSP of ₹6,400.
Leaders of the BKU (Charuni) declared that they are unflinching in their demand for MSP.
The next decision will be made during the meeting on Tuesday, according to BKU leader Rakesh Bains. “We have called the farming community conference at Shahbad on June 6 as the federal government attempted to divide farmers by enticing them with the promise of commercial procurement at ₹4800,” Bains said.
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The government’s decision to forgo providing MSP just before harvest season shocked the thousands of sunflower farmers in northern Haryana.
Farmers are waiting for the government to approve their requests in order to sell their produce to confidential dealers.
“Even though we harvested four acres of grain, we haven’t yet sold a single bushel. As there is a chance that government officials may agree to our requests, we have even postponed further harvesting,” according to farmer Krishan Kumar, who owns eight acres of sunflowers.
The farmers said that the government’s action caught them off guard and would result in losses of around ₹10,000 to ₹12,000 per acre.
Haryana’s CM on sunflower seed cultivation and MSP
Notably, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar acknowledged the efforts of sunflower farmers for cultivating three harvests annually and promised MSP throughout his three-day Jan Samvad program in Kurukshetra the previous month.
However, just one month following the chief minister’s remarks, the director of Haryana’s agricultural and livestock welfare department published a notice listing bajra and sunflower seed as Bhavantar Bharpai Yojana (BBY)-eligible crops. As a result, the government won’t purchase these crops at MSP and will instead pay farmers 1,000 per quintal to sell their harvest to private buyers.
According to Rakesh Bains, a farmer leader from Shahbad, “Farmers are left with no choice but to sell it to the private traders at around 4,000 per quintal while the MSP for sunflower has been raised to 6,400 per quintal by the Centre.
The federal government announced its intention to include sunflower harvest into the BBY, but in this instance, it ought to reimburse for the overall disparity between the MSP and the selling price on which producers sell their produce,” he further stated.
In Kurukshetra and Ambala districts’ potato-growing regions, sunflower is cultivated on around 30,000 acres. Sunflower allows farmers to harvest three crops from an expanse of land in a year in addition to rice and potatoes, which helps to increase their revenue.
