MSP for paddy, ragi and jowar announced

The Food and Civil Supplies department will begin procuring paddy, ragi and jowar in tune with the newly fixed minimum support price.

The Centre has announced the minimum support price (MSP), for 2015-16, for ragi, paddy and jowar. In addition, the State government has announced incentive. The combined price would come into effect from Monday.

The Centre has fixed the MSP for paddy at Rs 1,410 per quintal and the State would be giving an additional Rs 100. The MSP announced for ragi by the Centre is Rs 1,650, while the State is giving additional Rs 450. In case of white jowar, the MSP fixed by the Centre is Rs 1,590 while the State is offering an additional Rs 510 per quintal.

Giving these details at a press conference in Bengaluru on Saturday, Minister of State for Food and Civil Supplies Dinesh Gundu Rao said that while paddy purchase would begin from December 21, procurement of ragi and jowar would commence from January 1. The purchases would conclude by March 31.

The minister said the State is unlikely to get paddy from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh due to the heavy rains there. There could be sufficient ragi production, he added.

Rao said that there is demand for foodgrains in open market and this may push up the prices. Still, free distribution under the public distribution system would continue. If the department imposes control on prices, then farmers would face problem, he added.