Govt hikes kharif MSP by up to Rs 452/quintal, maximum in pulses, oil seeds

Centre seeks to encourage farmers to move away from paddy to these crops as their domestic output is low and global prices have surged

The Central government today increased the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of kharif crops for the 2021-21 crop season (July-June) by an average 3.7 per cent as compared to the previous year with the maximum hike reserved for pulses and oilseeds to encourage farmers to shift from paddy.

The relatively higher increase in MSP of kharif pulses and oilseeds also comes at a time when prices of both commodities are ruling much higher than the previous year due to low production and jump in international rates.

The MSP of tur and urad has been increased by Rs 300 per quintal in absolute terms for 2021-22 to Rs 6300 per quintal while the MSP of groundnut seed has been increased by Rs 275 per quintal in 2021-21 to Rs 5550 per quintal.

The MSP of sesame seed has been raised by Rs 452 per quintal to Rs 7307 per quintal.

In comparison, the MSP of common grade paddy, which is the biggest cereal grown during the kharif season, has been raised by a modest Rs 72 per quintal to Rs 1940 per quintal. (see chart)

“Strategy-wise it is good to use MSP as a tool to encourage farmers to shift from water guzzling paddy to more in-demand pulses and oilseeds, but experience shows that shift does not happen so easily as climatic conditions needed for growing paddy is entirely different from that for growing tur or urad,” Pramod Kumar Joshi, former Director South-Asia of International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) told Business Standard.

Joshi, who recently was part of the three-member high powered panel constituted by the Supreme Court on the three farm acts said that while paddy is grown in high rainfall areas or in well-irrigated areas of the country, tur and urad is grown in those areas where rainfall is less and sparsely irrigated.

“I feel MSP can encourage farmers in those areas where tur and urad is grown to bring more areas under the crop but won’t encourage paddy growers to shift towards these crops as the climatic conditions for growing both are entirely different,” Joshi said.

The Centre though is hopeful and said that differential remuneration between the crops is aimed at encouraging crop diversification.

It said in the official statement that a detailed plan for both area expansion and productivity enhancement for tur, moong, and urad has been formulated, under which all the available high-yielding varieties of seeds will be distributed free of cost to increase area through intercropping and sole crop.

“In case of oilseeds, a special kharif program has been formulated which will bring an additional 0.63 million hectare of area under oilseeds and is likely to produce an extra 12.02million tonnes of oilseeds and 2.43 million tonnes of edible oils,” the statement added.

Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that hikes once again dispel the notion that the current system of MSP will be dismantled once the new farm acts come into force.

Meanwhile, on MSP, the data showed that MSP of medium staple cotton has been raised by Rs 211 per quintal to Rs 5726 per quintal for 2021-22 while that of long staple cotton has been raised by Rs 200 per quintal to Rs 6025 per quintal.

The lowest increase of MSP has been for maize which has been raised by just Rs 20 per quintal as compared to last year from Rs 1850 per quintal to Rs 1870 per quintal.