MP: Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait holds protest, tractor rally in Narmadapuram seeking hike in Soybean MSP

Narmadapuram: Farmer Leader Rakesh Tikait, who heads the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), staged a protest and held a tractor rally in Madhya Pradesh's Narmadapuram district on Monday, demanding to increase the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of the soybean crop.
The tractor rally of Bharatiya Kisan Union started from Tawa Colony in Seoni Malwa and concluded at Krishi Upaj Mandi, Seoni Malwa in the district.
They held their demonstration seeking to increase the MSP of the soybean crop from Rs 4892 to Rs 6,000 a quintal, and farmer leader Tikait also addressed the farmers gathered in the mandi. Later, they submitted a memorandum to the district administration delaying the hike in the soybean crop MSP.
While addressing the farmers, Tikait said, "Keep your agitation strong and don't let any political party reach your stage. Neither provide the stage nor the mike. If the protest will be non-politcal then nobody will have objection with the protest; neither the officer nor the government. We don't have any fight with police or administration. People in the administration are from among us."
This agitation will be continued, it is a long protest. Delhi Farmer protest last for 13 months; farmers are not going to give up. If farmers loose then the countrymen will die of hunger. Don't try to defeat the farmer, they will not loose; they are fighting to protect its land, crop and its breed, he added.
"We don't have any problem with police or administration. We want them to convey our messages to the state government and the state government's messgae will further reach Government of India as MSP is concerned to central government. The state government has nothing to do with it," Tikait said.
Notably, the farmers have been protesting acorss the state these days for their demand to increase the MSP of Soybean crop to Rs 6000 a quintal. Farmers claim that they are not getting fair prices for their crops and were not able to recover their costs at the current MSP rate.