Facing widespread farmer protests over the farm sector bills just passed in Parliament, the Centre on Monday announced Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for major crops of the forthcoming rabi season at least a month in advance. However, the quantum of increase was subdued both in value and percentage as compared to the previous season.

Floor price for wheat, the main rabi cereal crop, has been increased by ₹50 to ₹1,975 per quintal, up by about 2.6 per cent over the previous season. The support price for chana has been increased by ₹250 to ₹5,125, masoor by ₹300 to ₹5,100 and mustard by ₹225 to ₹4,650 per quintal. The MSP increases in the previous rabi marketing season were ₹85 (wheat), ₹255 (channa), ₹325 (masoor) and ₹225 (mustard) respectively. Similarly, the increase of ₹75 per quintal for barley to ₹1,600 and safflower by ₹112 per quintal to ₹5,327 were lower than an increase of ₹85 per quintal (barley and ₹270 (safflower) in the 2020-21 RMS.

The new MSP rates approved by the Union Cabinet on Monday were announced by Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar in Parliament.

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Foodgrain production

Also, the government announced the foodgrain production target of 301 million tonnes (mt) for the crop year 2020-21 (July-June season), an increase of 1.5 per cent over last year’s 296.65 million tonnes.

Rice production target has been fixed at 119.6 mt compared to 118.43 mt in last year’s fourth advanced estimate. Similarly, wheat production target has been fixed at 108 mt (107.59 mt last year). Total coarse cereal production is targetted at 47.80 mt (47.48 mt).

The crop targets were announced at the National Conference for Rabi Campaign 2020 on Monday that also reviewed the progress of kharif. Production target for pulses has been set at 25.60 mt as against last year’s 23.15 mt, while for oilseed it has been fixed at 37 mt (33.42 mt). The production target for mustard, a major rabi oilseed crop has been raised from 9.2 to 12.5 mt.

Kharif acreage

Acreages in the kharif season are higher by about 5.71 per cent at 1,113.63 lakh ha as on September 18. Cumulative rainfall in the current monsoon season has been 7 per cent higher, while the outlook for October-December period looks good, which should help the rabi sowing.

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