Ahead of the assembly elections, the Agriculture Ministry has proposed a 5 to 7 percent increase in the minimum support price (MSP) of winter-sown or Rabi crops to help the farmers. Haryana and Punjab together contribute around 70 percent wheat to the central pool that is used to run public distribution as well as other welfare schemes.
The Agriculture ministry has suggested increasing the wheat procurement price by 4.6 percent to Rs 1,925 / quintal from previous year’s Rs 1,840. This is expected to put an extra burden of around Rs 3,000 crore on the Centre’s Rs 1.84 lakh crore food subsidy bill. The cabinet will soon take a decision as the winter sowing starts from November.
The ministry has proposed a 5.3 percent hike in the mustard MSP that will take the existing floor price of Rs 4,200 / quintal to Rs 4,425 & a higher increase of 5.9 percent in the MSP of barley. It has recommended the highest increase of 7.26 percent in the MSP of masur, to Rs 4,800 / quintal.
The Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices or CACP that recommends minimum support price for major crops and considers the overall cost of production. Indian PM Narendra Modi has assured farmers MSP at 150 percent of the input cost.
A senior agriculture department official, on condition of anonymity said that “The proposals are under consultation with related ministries like food before being sent to the cabinet for fimal approval. Generally, CACP’s recommendations are accepted fully. The prices will be soon notified”.
The Centre has been promoting cultivation of pulses & oilseeds over foodgrains for the last few years. And due to this there has been record production of foodgrains with each successive year, leaving the government granaries overflowing. With over 71 million tonnes of foodgrains in stock, the Centre aims to boost the production of edible oil to cut the import bill that has swelled to around Rs 80,000 crore.
Another official said, “A significant increase is proposed in safflower and mustard to persuade farmers to shift from wheat to oilseeds and among coarse cereals, barley too got a boost”.
