Mandi prices of major kharif crops show little improvement, shows data

Mandi prices of major kharif crops continued to trade below respective minimum support prices (MSPs) for the second month in a row in late October, official data showed, but were tad better since late September.

 

As on October 24, among kharif crops, ragi has led the fall with almost 35 per cent drop in mandi prices as compared to its respective MSP, followed by sunflower, moong and groundnut. Soybean was selling at around 21 per cent lower than its MSP of ₹5,328 per quintal, and moong was around 24 per cent lower than its MSP of ₹8768 per quintal.

 

This could have serious implications on farmers’ earnings as the kharif harvest has picked up pace since late October.

 

The official data showed that as of October 24, around 27 per cent of the total kharif area has been harvested across the country.

 

Of this, around 48 per cent area of pulses, mainly in uradbean (56 per cent), moongbean (91 per cent) and mothbean (100 per cent) has been harvested. And 20.47 per cent area of oilseeds, majorly in groundnut (28.87 per cent) and sesamum (49.43 per cent) has been cultivated.

 

While 41.70 per cent area of coarse cereals, majorly in jowar (50.74 per cent) and bajra (59.05 per cent) and 15 per cent area of rice has been harvested for kharif crops of 2025-26. This pace will pick up now. 

The Centre on October 31 imposed a 30 per cent import duty on yellow peas effective from November 1 to stem the fall in domestic pulses prices. 

 

Days before, it announced a ₹15,095.83 crore procurement plan for pulses and oilseeds.