Minimum support price: Need for improved methodology, institutional reforms

There were long drawn farmer protests in 2020 demanding legalising minimum support price (MSP) and that demand appears to have regained momentum recently.  Notwithstanding formal legalisation, MSP continues to remain at the core of the discourse on remunerative prices and other farmer related issues.

There are two contentious questions related to MSP. First, how is the MSP fixed? Second, how to ensure that farmers get the recommended MSP?

While the government is mainly working on the second issue, many farmer groups raise their concerns about the first issue, the way MSP is fixed, and contend that MSPs do not