The common man’s Dal and Roti looks to be the costliest food items now-a-days in the Indian household list. Ask the housewife she will tell you how her kitchen budget has been disturbed. The prices of common man’s staple food pulses have gone from Rs 50 to Rs 200 per kg since last two years. He blames the BJP government for the price hike and this is a reality that since BJP Government took over the rein in the Centre price of essential commodities have never remained stable thus taking the ‘Achche Din Ke Sapne’ far away from him. Who is to be blamed, people for increased consumption or the trader for the unprecedented price increase? India has never been a deficit country as far as pulse production is concerned and today Centre is mooting to import pulses from Myanmar to fill the demand gap. The faulty ‘Minimum Support Price (MSP)’ too has played its role in creating the shortage. The MSP assures farmers growing a particular crop that it will be bought at a price, not less than certain price (MSP) which shields them from extraneous effects such as inflation, deflation, deficient monsoon, low demand etc. and assuring them of the income that balances their investment. Based on the MSP offered by government for various crops, the farmers usually choose which crop to grow through cost-benefit analysis. In recent years because of higher MSP for wheat over pulses and high demand for wheat in international market, many farmers switched to growing wheat. These two factors led to an additional shortfall of 2 million tonnes in domestic pulse production. Government is silent on the hoarding of large quantity of these essential commodities by big players. With these commodities becoming attractive on trading platforms the supply chain becomes handicapped creating an artificial shortage thus pumping up the prices which ultimately benefits the large players and common man ends up paying higher price for survival.
