India News | Only Centre Can Give Rs 6,000/quintal Rate to Soybean; Cong Poll Promise Won't Work: Pasha Patel
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Only the BJP can give a higher price to soybean crop yield as the party is in power at the Centre whereas the Congress' poll promise cannot materialise, Maharashtra Agricultural Costs and Prices Commission chairman Pasha Patel said on Monday.
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Nov 18 (PTI) Only the BJP can give a higher price to soybean crop yield as the party is in power at the Centre whereas the Congress' poll promise cannot materialise, Maharashtra Agricultural Costs and Prices Commission chairman Pasha Patel said on Monday.
Soybean prices are likely to influence electoral outcomes in constituencies in Marathwada and Vidarbha regions in Maharashtra which votes on November 20.
Much like how onion prices impacted the electoral outcome in the Lok Sabha elections in northern Maharashtra, the focus is shifted towards soybean prices and the distress faced by those farming the crop.
Acknowledging the impact of onion prices on the Lok Sabha poll outcome, Patel told PTI that only the Central government can offer the rate of Rs 6,000 per quintal for soybean which is not in the hands of the state government.
"The defeat caused by the onion price impact in the Lok Sabha polls won't repeat (in assembly elections)," he said in an interview to PTI.
Patel further said the Congress has promised to give Rs 6,000 per quintal for soybean in its election manifesto for the assembly elections.
"Farmers are questioning how can Congress offer this rate. We will give Rs 6,000 per quintal for soybean, which will be more than Rs 3,650 per quintal global rate," Patel added.
Farmers are asking why Congress failed to give the promised price for soybeans in the party-ruled Karnataka, he said.
"If they (Congress) give the promised rate, they will come to power in Maharashtra," he added.
Patel said Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis spoke with Union ministers Piyush Goel and Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Sunday on the soybean price issue.
"The Centre is ready to export soybean oil cakes. Indian oil cake is costlier by nearly Rs 1,000 in the export market," he said.
Indian farmers will get relief once the De-oiled soybean cake (DOC) reaches the international market, Patel said.
DOC is a byproduct of the soybean oil manufacturing process that is made by extracting most of the oil from soybeans and processing the remaining solid material into a cake-like form.
"The state government can bear the cost of transportation from factory to ports like the past when sugar export was incentivised on similar lines. We can also decrease GST on oil seed, which will lead to the rate rising by Rs 500," Patel said.
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)