State, Centre yet to fix MSP for kharif crops

New Delhi: While the state governments and the Centre have not been able to arrive at a consensus on fixing the minimum support price (MSP) for all Kharif crops even as the sowing season has begun, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday intervened and said that MSP for the seasonal crops including paddy will be fixed at least 1.5 times of the production cost and will be approved by the Union Cabinet next week.

Making the announcement after a meeting with a group of sugarcane farmers from Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra and Karnataka at his residence, Mr Modi also said the support price for sugarcane, called fair and remunerative price (FRP), would be announced in the next two weeks and that the rate would be higher than 2017-18. The Prime Minister’s intervention was surprising as only on Thursday, as reported exclusively by The Asian Age, in a high level meeting held by Niti Aayog vice chairman Rajiv Kumar with several farmers organisations’ representatives, no solution could be arrived at over the issue.

During the June 28 meeting, farmers’ representatives had clearly indicated to Mr Kumar that fixing MSP for all Kharif crops may not happen anytime soon. Also several states are also opposed to the concept, sources privy to development had said, which is also being seen as a major reason which could inordinately delay the NDA government’s dream of fixing support prices for all crops, which would in future help in doubling of their incomes — one of the main political planks of the Narendra Modi-led dispensation. Mr Modi’s announcement therefore seems to hold a lot of political significance as it is a clear signal that the NDA government is keen to reach out to the farmers at a time when 2019 Lok Sabha polls are just nine months away.

The Mandsaur farmers’ agitation last year was the epicentre of farmers protests across Madhya Pradesh.