Cabinet approves minimum support price for Kharif crops

In order to boost the income of the farmers the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for Kharif crops for the year 2018-19.

The meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the proposal made by Union Minister Arun Jaitley in the Budget 2018 of hiking the support price by one-and-a-half times of the production cost for Kharif crops.

MSP is referred to a price at which the government buys crops from the farmers, to protect agriculture producers from fall in farm prices.

The MSP for paddy has been increased by around Rs 200 per quintal, Jowar (hybrid) by Rs 730 per quintal and Ragi by Rs 997 per quintal.

Apart from this, the MSP of both cotton (medium staple) and cotton (long staple) has been increased by Rs 1130 per quintal.

In his 2018 Budget speech, Jaitley had announced that think-tank Niti Aayog in consultation with central and state governments will put in place a mechanism to ensure farmers get benefits of the minimum support price.

Since 2007-08, MSP has gone up from Rs 745 to Rs 1550 per quintal.

In 2008-09, the MSP was increased from Rs 745 per quintal in the previous FY to Rs 900 per quintal (an increase of Rs 155 per quintal). Rs 100 per quintal on MSP was also raised by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government in FY 2009-10.