Farm crisis because of central policies: RSS-affiliated BKS

New Delhi: As farmers seethe in parts of the country, demanding financial help from the government, a farmers' body affiliated to the RSS has blamed the Centre's "irrational policies" for the crisis.

Farmers were not the Central government's "priority", BKS National Secretary Mohini Mohan Mishra said, demanding that they be given higher prices for crops and farm produce.

"The Centre is more concerned about consumers and rising prices of food items than farmers. They are not a priority for the government," Mishra told PTI.

He said farmers were buying agricultural inputs on maximum retail prices.

"Then why they should get minimum selling price," he asked.

The government should at least ensure the selling price was 20-30 per cent more than the cost of production, he said.

Mishra cited the case of pulses, saying the Centre first promoted its cultivation and then imported cheap lentils.

"As a result today farmers are not getting appropriate prices for their produce," he added.

Similarly, he said, the government slashed import duty on wheat when there was bumper crop this year.

On the ongoing farmers' protests in Madhya Pradesh, however, Mishra said the current turmoil in the state was the creation of "some mischievous" elements.

But farmers were also upset because the state government had failed to make "necessary arrangements" for the procurement of their crops, he added.

He said the BKS would hold an indefinite dharna from June 15 at all the divisional headquarters against the state government's anti-farmer policies.