Bhopal: The 48-hour-long stir by the farmers of the Central-southern part of Madhya Pradesh, which threatened to escalate into a major agitation, was withdrawn at midnight on Wednesday following talks between the protesters and the state government.
Significantly, the farmers’ stir, that put to test the crisis resolution capacity of chief minister Mohan Yadav for the first time since he assumed office two and half years ago, has exposed the limitations of a ‘double engine’ government (meaning the state BJP government enjoying the benefit of having BJP in power at the Centre) amid tussle among leaders of the ruling party.
The farmers from the Narmadapuram area, called the moong growing belt of Madhya Pradesh, suddenly started marching to Bhopal on July 27 to gherao chief minister’s official bungalow at Shyamla Hills, taking the Mohan Yadav government off guard.
They demanded the state government to procure their entire produce of moong, instead of 25 percent of their yield, capped for each farmer.
The agitation came at a time when the ruling BJP launched campaign blitzkrieg by carpet bombing the Datia Assembly constituency in the state with around two dozen state and Central ministers including chief minister for Thursday’s by-elections.
State agriculture minister Aidel Singh Kansana had shot a letter to Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan seeking to increase the moong procurement cap fixed for Madhya Pradesh by the Centre by an additional four lakh metric tons to meet the demands of the farmers.
Sources said that the state government took such an action expecting the Centre to bail it out with the farmers intensifying their stir by breaking police barricades to enter Bhopal.
The Union agriculture minister, however, had rather exposed the governance inadequacy in the Mohan Yadav government by highlighting the slow pace of procurement of moong in the state.
By July 29, the state government had procured around 60,000 metric tons of moong against the Centre’s procurement cap of 4,54,580 metric tons fixed for Madhya Pradesh in 2025-26 by the Centre, a letter by Mr. Chouhan to the chief minister said.
This is 87 percent of the total 5,23,243 metric tons of moong proposed to be procured by the Centre from the states in 2025-26.
Under a Central procurement scheme, christened as Price Support Scheme (PSS), the Union government procures 25 percent of moong produced in the states.
The Centre’s ‘unexpected’ move had spurred the chief minister to constitute a ministerial panel to hold talks with the protesting farmers to end the stir.
During the talk with the farmers, held on Wednesday evening, the state government had offered to increase the moong procurement cap from the existing 25 percent to 60 percent, besides ending the e-token system for sale of fertilizers to the farmers, leading to the withdrawal of the stir.
According to the farmer leaders, around five to six quintals of moong are grown in an acre and the farmer sells around 1.2 quintals per acre to the government at the minimum support price of Rs 8,700 per quintal, forcing them to sell the remaining produce at Rs 5,000- Rs 5,500 per quintal.
This has caused resentment among the farmers.
The moong crop is a significant source of additional income for farmers in the Central-southern part of Madhya Pradesh.
Sources said that they had chosen the by-election time to make the state government yield to their demand.