Leaders of farmers’ associations have requested the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) to recommend to the government to make the minimum support price (MSP) for rabi crops mandatory. Though any such recommendation of CACP will not be binding on the government, it may put pressure on the Centre due to the general election next year.

“We have requested the commission to recommend MSP guarantee for farmers. It is up to the CACP to accept our views,” said Rampal Jat, president of Kisan Mahapanchayat. He pleaded that the CACP has to ensure that MSP is received by farmers and to not avoid the issue by stating agriculture as a State subject.

The CACP on July 4 held a discussion with representatives of farmers’ organisations to decide its price policy report for the rabi 2024-25 marketing season (April-March). The annual exercise is done by the commission before submitting its recommendations for MSPs of various crops.

Pulses, oilseeds

Wheat, chana, masur (lentil) and mustard are the key rabi crops, whose sowing will start from October after harvesting of kharif crops.

Jat said the Commission was apprised by them on how discrimination has been made against oilseed and pulses farmers vis-a-vis wheat and paddy growers. While the Centre procures maximum quantity of paddy and wheat, the situation in other crops is completely different, Jat said alleging except in chana (gram), there is hardly any procurement despite mandi prices ruling below MSPs.

Some other farmer leaders urged the CACP to fix the MSPs based on the comprehensive cost (C2) of production and not on the current procedure of calculating it on A2+family labour cost. The Centre decided in 2018 to fix the MSPs at a minimum 50 per cent above the cost of production, which was a long pending demand of farmers. However, there are some crops such as wheat where the MSP is more than double its cost.

Hike in MSPs

Last month, the Cabinet approved MSPs of 14 kharif crops for the 2023-24 crop year (July-June) by raising them in the range of 5-10 per cent from the previous year. The rates have been fixed with a view to increase farmers’ income as the guiding principle of 50 per cent profit over cost has been maintained.

The MSP of paddy (common variety), a key kharif cereal, has been increased by 7 per cent to ₹2,183 per quintal, The support price for ‘A’ grade variety of paddy has been increased by 6.9 per cent to ₹2,203 per quintal. Cotton (medium) has been raised by 8.9 per cent to ₹6,620 and long staple variety by 10 per cent to ₹7,020 per quintal.

The MSP of soyabean has been increased to 7 per cent to ₹4,600 per quintal, while support price for sunflower seed has been raised 5.6 per cent to ₹6,760 per quintal and groundnut by 8.7 per cent to ₹6,357 per quintal.

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