 "Farmers")
The government has offered a higher average increase in minimum support price (MSP) to farmers for the rabi marketing season of 2023-24. The average across six crops is 5.7 per cent compared with 4.2 per cent increase seen in the last season.
The 5.5 per cent increase for wheat is the highest since the pandemic. This could be to increase the amount of wheat held in the central pool, according to a note by rating agency CRISIL. The October 2022 level of 22.75 million tonnes is 51.5 per cent lower than in October 2021. The MSP has been rising for other crops such as paddy as well, where the increase earlier announced was also the highest since 2018-19 (see charts 1,
