CCEA may hike MSP of paddy by Rs 200 a quintal, pulses by Rs 400

Coarse cereals MSP may see big rise, ragi MSP to rise by 900/qtl

The much-awaited MSP of kharif crops for 2018-19 season is expected to be announced on Wednesday, with paddy support price projected to rise by as much as Rs 200 a quintal, and pulses by over Rs 400 a quintal.

The current MSP of common grade paddy is Rs 1,750 a quintal while that of kharif pulses varies between Rs 5,400 and Rs 5,575 a quintal. A significant rise could push up their MSPs over Rs 6,000 a quintal.

News agency PTI said that among all the crops, the highest increase in MSP is expected to be in ragi whose prices are projected to increase by Rs 900 a quintal to around Rs 2,800 a quintal.

Sources said a big rise has been proposed for MSPs of coarse cereals -- which apart from ragi, include jowar and maize -- in line with Centre’s promise to providing an MSP 1.5 times the A2+FL cost of production for all notified 23 crops.

Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that the Cabinet will approve the increase in MSP to at least 1.5 times of the production cost in the forthcoming meeting.

Paddy is the main kharif (summer-sown) crop, the sowing of which has already begun with the onset of southwest monsoon.

"In some of the kharif crops where the MSP is already 1.5 times of the production cost, the increase will be minimal. But there will a sharp increase in crops like paddy, ragi and moong, whose MSP are well below 150 per cent of the input cost," PTI reported quoting an unnamed source.

Officials said the agriculture ministry has proposed higher MSP than what has been recommended by the government advisory body CACP considering growing farm distress because of fall in prices of most crops owing to bumper production, they said.