Samyukt Kisan Morcha warns against natural farming, asks Centre to ensure adequate fertilisers

📌 Summary:

• The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of more than 500 farmers' organisations, has urged the Union government to ensure adequate fertiliser supplies during the current Kharif season, claiming that "natural farming" could reduce crop output by about 30%.

• The SKM announced nationwide protests against rising prices of fertilisers and diesel and against alleged black-marketing; its National Council will meet on June 17 and an All India Convention is planned for July 28 in New Delhi.

• A central demand is a statutory (legally guaranteed) Minimum Support Price (MSP); SKM leaders asked farmer unions to burn copies of the recent government order on Kharif MSP.

• The SKM alleged the government failed to ensure adequate urea and Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP), and linked the fertiliser and diesel situation to foreign-policy choices — alleging the stopping of cheaper crude oil, natural gas and LPG imports from Iran and Russia.

• On MSP, the SKM claimed that between 2016 and 2025 farmers of 20 major crops lost ₹27 lakh crore to millers, exporters and middlemen, and that for Kharif 2025-26, losses from paddy, cotton, soybean and maize alone totalled ₹2.64 lakh crore.

• It claimed several crops sold below MSP in October 2025 (soybean 21% below, moong 24%, maize 24%, groundnut 26%, ragi 35%, paddy 1.8% below) and that 83% of farmers never receive MSP.

• Note: these are the SKM's contested allegations; the government has separately stated there is ample fertiliser stock to meet Kharif demand and no need for panic buying.

🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS3 (Indian Economy) — agricultural marketing and MSP policy; fertiliser subsidy and supply management; the debate over natural farming versus input-intensive agriculture and its bearing on food security and farm incomes.

📝 Prelims Facts:

• The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) is an umbrella coalition of more than 500 farmers' organisations.

• MSP (Minimum Support Price) is announced by the government on the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP).

• Key fertilisers cited: urea and Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP).

• Natural farming is a chemical-free, low-external-input approach, promoted in India through the National Mission on Natural Farming.

🔑 Key Term: Statutory MSP — a legally guaranteed Minimum Support Price that would make procurement at MSP an enforceable legal right, as distinct from the present non-statutory, policy-based MSP regime.