After discussion with Siddaramaiah, companies agree to buy maize from farmers as per MSP

Bengaluru: Following a discussion chaired by CM, ethanol-producing companies on Friday agreed to follow the government’s directives and purchase maize as per the Minimum Support Price (MSP).

During the meeting, also attended by Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H K Patil, Agriculture Minister N Chaluvarayaswamy and Excise Minister R B Thimmapur, the government urged the companies to immediately procure maize to alleviate the crisis faced by farmers.

The discussion comes at a time when the state’s farmers have sown a record quantity of maize. With an estimated sowing of 17.94 lakh hectares, the state is expected to produce 54.74 lakh metric tonnes of maize. Due to the increased production, prices have fallen below the MSP. The government informed the companies that officials have been directed to frame guidelines on the maize procurement process.

During the meeting, the companies explained their constraints. They referred to the Union government’s cap that only 26.3 crore litres of ethanol may be produced in the state — requiring about 7 lakh metric tonnes of maize.

“Even though we requested the Union government to increase the limit to at least 100 crore litres, they have permitted only 26%. As a result, it is difficult to procure more maize from farmers. Since the production cost of ethanol is higher than the selling price, we cannot procure maize at MSP,” they said.