Comments
The Centre has raised the minimum support price (MSP) of the current year's paddy crop by Rs 80 a quintal.
The increase – approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs here on Thursday – is below the Rs 160 recommended by the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), which was inclusive of a bonus of Rs 80 over and above the MSP.
The new MSP would work out to Rs 1,080/quintal for common paddy and Rs 1,110/quintal in the case of fine (‘Grade A') varieties grown mainly in Punjab and Haryana. While the Rs 80 bonus recommended by the CACP and proposed by the Agriculture Ministry has not received the Cabinet's nod in view of opposition from the Finance and Food Ministries, it may still be announced before the crop gets harvested from October, official sources said.
Last year, the Centre had effected hefty hikes in the MSPs of pulses, which recorded an all-time-high production. This time, in a similar bid to boost output of the other major importable crop group – oilseeds – the Centre has raised the MSP of soyabean, groundnut, sunflower and sesamum by 17-19 per cent.
Even in pulses, the MSPs for arhar (pigeon-pea) and moong (green gram) and have been fixed Rs 100/quintal higher than the levels recommended by the CACP.
Moreover, an additional Rs 500/quintal incentive would be paid on arhar, moong and urad (black gram) sold to government procurement agencies during the harvest/arrival period of two months, an official release said.
Comments
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.