The cabinet committee on economic affairs approved the increase in minimum support price (MSP) for 17 mandated kharif crops for marketing season 2022-23. The MSP for paddy has been increased by Rs 100 per quintal.
Union minister Anurag Thakur said the government increased MSP of kharif crops to ensure remunerative prices to growers for their produce and to encourage crop diversification. The increase in MSP is in line with the Union budget 2018-19 announcement of fixing the MSP at a level of at least 50 per cent over the all-India weighted average cost of production, aiming at reasonably fair remuneration for farmers.
The cost of production refers to the all paid-out costs incurred by farmers such as labour, —bullock labour/machine labour—rent paid for leased land, seeds, fertilisers, irrigation charges, and diesel/electricity for operation of machinery.
Under the increased MSP, the price of common grade variety of paddy has been increased to Rs 2,040 per quintal from Rs 1,940 last year. MSP for ‘A’ grade paddy variety has been increased to Rs 2,060 per quintal from Rs 1,960. MSP for moong dal has been increased by Rs 480 to Rs 7,755 per quintal, while MSP for tur, groundnut and urad has been increased by Rs 300 each.
“It is notable that return over MSP for bajra, tur, urad sunflower seed, soybean and groundnut is more than 50 per cent over the all-India weighted average cost of production at 85 per cent, 60 per cent, 59 per cent, 56 per cent, 53 per cent and 51 per cent respectively,” the cabinet statement said.
The government said concerted efforts have been made over the last few years to realign MSP in favour of oilseeds, pulses and coarse cereals to encourage farmers to farm these crops in larger areas and adopt best technologies and farming practices, to correct demand-supply imbalance.
As per third advance estimates for 2021-22, production of foodgrains in the country is estimated at record 314.51 million tonnes which is higher by 3.77 million tonnes than the production of foodgrain during 2020-21. The production during 2021-22 is higher by 23.80 million tonnes than the previous five years’ (2016-17 to 2020-21) average production of foodgrains.
