Punjab seeks Rs 1,950 a qtl MSP for wheat

Punjab government today sought wheat MSP of Rs 1,950 per quintal for the Rabi season 2015-16 in accordance with prevalent input cost.
Approval in this regard was given by Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.
Badal gave his nod to the recommendations of the State Agricultural department with regard to fixation of Minimum Support Price (MSP) for the crops of Rabi season 2015-16 by the Centre.
An official spokesman said Badal asked the Director Agriculture to shot a letter to the Member Secretary of Commission for Agriculture Costs and Prices (CACP) for streamlining the policy regarding the marketing of Rabi crops in year 2015-16.

The spokesperson further pointed out that state government has recommended an increase in prices of such crops in proportion to the increase in their input costs.
Keeping in view the steep hike in the input costs of agricultural commodities the need of hour was to fix the prices of the Rabi crops accordingly.

The spokesperson pointed out that in order to fix the estimated cost of wheat crop for the year 2015-16, the market price of various inputs like seeds, fertilisers, insecticides, pesticides, irrigation and labour have been kept in mind along with various other factors including the marketing expenditure and weather risks.

Emphasising the need for an increase in MSP of wheat crop for the next year, the spokesperson said keeping in view all these factors the MSP of the wheat must be fixed at Rs 1,950 per quintal.
In the same manner, the Government of India (GoI) must fix the MSP of other crops like barley, gram and mustard at Rs 1,640, Rs 3,800 and Rs 3,600 per quintal respectively.
The Agriculture Department had proposed the hike in MSP after determining input costs of the Rabi crops for which agricultural experts had thoroughly analyzed the current situation, the spokesperson added.