Centre hikes minimum support price for kharif crops

The Centre on Wednesday made a substantial increase in the minimum support price (MSP) of pulses and oilseeds for the 2019-10 crop year, while marginally increasing the rates for paddy.

In a bid to encourage farmers to boost production of pulses, the government increased the MSP of toor by Rs 125/quintal to Rs 5,800, while that of urad by Rs 100 to Rs 5,700 and moong by Rs 75 to Rs 7,050.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also decided to increase the support price for oilseeds as an incentive to step up production which could lead to reduction in import of edible oil.

“Soyabean (yellow) rate has been hiked by Rs 311/quintal to Rs 3,710 for the current 2019-20 crop year, while that of sunflower seeds has been raised by Rs 262 to Rs 5,650, sesamum seeds by Rs 236 to Rs 6,485, groundnut by Rs 200 to Rs 5,090 and niger seeds by Rs 63 to Rs 5,940,” Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar told reporters here.

The MSP for paddy, the main kharif crop, was hiked by Rs 65 per quintal to Rs 1,815 (common grade) for the 2019-20 crop year and Rs 1,835 per quintal for A grade variety.

Tomar said that the Centre has increased the MSP of kharif crops for 2019-20 in line with the principle of fixing MSPs at a level which is at least 1.5 times the cost of production, which was announced last year.

The government also announced a significant increase in ragi MSP by Rs 253 to Rs 3,150 per quintal against the last year's rate of Rs 2,897.

The MSP of jowar has been raised by Rs 120 to Rs 2,550/quintal for hybrid and Rs 2,570 for Maldandi variety.

Maize MSP has been hiked by Rs 60/quintal to Rs 1,760, while that of bajra has been raised by Rs 50/quintal to Rs 2,000 for the current year.

Among commercial crops, the government has increased the cotton MSP by Rs 100-105/quintal for this year, with medium staple cotton at Rs 5,255 and long staple cotton at Rs 5,550/quintal.