File picture: Women farmers sow paddy in a field in Budgam.
| Photo Credit:
ANI
Continuing the same level of increase for the second consecutive year in the third term, the Indian government has increased the minimum support prices (MSPs) of kharif crops for the 2025-26 season beginning July to between 1 per cent and 13.9 per cent.
As sowing has started with the early arrival of monsoon in several parts of the country, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the hike. The approval came on June 19 last year. The early approval of MSPs is also seen to help the Central team, scheduled to commence a 15-day campaign starting May 15 to reach out to farmers to publicise the hike.
During the last Kharif season, the benchmark rates were raised between 1.4 per cent and 12.7 per cent. Kharif crops will start arriving in the mandis (agriculture market yards) from the last week of September, and farmers will be paid the new rates when the government starts procurement.
According to the decision of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), announced by Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday, the MSP of the kharif season’s main cereal crop paddy (Grade A variety) has been hiked by 3 per cent, the second lowest after moong among 14 crops, to ₹2,389 per quintal from ₹2,320/quintal in 2024-25. Last year, the hike was 5.4 per cent. The government has already procured 50.8 million tonnes (mt) of rice (over 85 per cent of Grade A variety) until May 25 in the 2024-25 season (October-September), whereas the target is to buy 57.06 mt and the government’s own requirement is about 41 mt per year.
“Though the new MSP is as per the recommendation of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), the lower hike in paddy MSP is in line with the government policy of reducing the area under paddy by 5 million hectares,” an official source said. There is no need for expansion of area, and the focus is to produce an extra 10 million tonnes from the reduced area by raising the productivity level of states where it is lower than Punjab, Haryana, officials said.
Briefing media after the Cabinet meeting, Vaishnaw said that the government has been following the 2018 policy decision, which stipulated that MSP should be at least 50 per cent more than the cost of production.
Accordingly, the new benchmark rates for 10 crops are fixed at 50 per cent over their respective costs of production (A2+Family labour), while four other crops are in the range of 53-63 per cent higher than costs.
The highest increase in MSP over the previous year is on ragi by 14 per cent to ₹4,886/quintal, and the lowest 1 per cent in moong to ₹8,768/quintal.
Among other crops, the new MSP of Jowar (hybrid) stands at ₹3,699/quintal (9.7 per cent hike from last year), that of Bajra at ₹2,775/quintal (5.7 per cent), Maize at ₹2,400/quintal (7.9 per cent), Tur(Arhar) ₹8,000/quintal (6 per cent), Urad ₹7,800/quintal (5.4 per cent), Groundnut ₹7,263/quintal (7.1 per cent), Sunflower seed ₹7,781/quintal (6.1 per cent), Soyabean ₹5,328/quintal (8.9 per cent), Sesamum ₹9,846/quintal (6.2 per cent), Cotton (Long staple) ₹8,110/quintal (7.8 per cent).
“There is a balance in pricing as a nominal hike has been given to paddy, whereas maize has been raised substantially, signalling farmers to shift to the coarse cereal. However, unless there is a sugar model for maize, making MSP mandatory for processors, the shifting is not easy. However, the government is equally sensitive towards soyabean as many growers in Madhya Pradesh last year had shifted to maize, and a decent hike has been given,” said a former agriculture secretary.
But, oilseeds is one sector where the government needs to do more, he said, while suggesting import duty of edible oils should be calibrated automatically as per global prices, so that the imported oils remain costlier than domestically produced edible oils. He also said the hike in cotton MSP is not the solution to raise area and the government should address it comprehensively.
Published on May 28, 2025
File picture: Women farmers sow paddy in a field in Budgam.
| Photo Credit:
ANI
Continuing the same level of increase for the second consecutive year in the third term, the Indian government has increased the minimum support prices (MSPs) of kharif crops for the 2025-26 season beginning July to between 1 per cent and 13.9 per cent.
As sowing has started with the early arrival of monsoon in several parts of the country, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the hike. The approval came on June 19 last year. The early approval of MSPs is also seen to help the Central team, scheduled to commence a 15-day campaign starting May 15 to reach out to farmers to publicise the hike.
During the last Kharif season, the benchmark rates were raised between 1.4 per cent and 12.7 per cent. Kharif crops will start arriving in the mandis (agriculture market yards) from the last week of September, and farmers will be paid the new rates when the government starts procurement.
According to the decision of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), announced by Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday, the MSP of the kharif season’s main cereal crop paddy (Grade A variety) has been hiked by 3 per cent, the second lowest after moong among 14 crops, to ₹2,389 per quintal from ₹2,320/quintal in 2024-25. Last year, the hike was 5.4 per cent. The government has already procured 50.8 million tonnes (mt) of rice (over 85 per cent of Grade A variety) until May 25 in the 2024-25 season (October-September), whereas the target is to buy 57.06 mt and the government’s own requirement is about 41 mt per year.
“Though the new MSP is as per the recommendation of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), the lower hike in paddy MSP is in line with the government policy of reducing the area under paddy by 5 million hectares,” an official source said. There is no need for expansion of area, and the focus is to produce an extra 10 million tonnes from the reduced area by raising the productivity level of states where it is lower than Punjab, Haryana, officials said.
Briefing media after the Cabinet meeting, Vaishnaw said that the government has been following the 2018 policy decision, which stipulated that MSP should be at least 50 per cent more than the cost of production.
Accordingly, the new benchmark rates for 10 crops are fixed at 50 per cent over their respective costs of production (A2+Family labour), while four other crops are in the range of 53-63 per cent higher than costs.
The highest increase in MSP over the previous year is on ragi by 14 per cent to ₹4,886/quintal, and the lowest 1 per cent in moong to ₹8,768/quintal.
Among other crops, the new MSP of Jowar (hybrid) stands at ₹3,699/quintal (9.7 per cent hike from last year), that of Bajra at ₹2,775/quintal (5.7 per cent), Maize at ₹2,400/quintal (7.9 per cent), Tur(Arhar) ₹8,000/quintal (6 per cent), Urad ₹7,800/quintal (5.4 per cent), Groundnut ₹7,263/quintal (7.1 per cent), Sunflower seed ₹7,781/quintal (6.1 per cent), Soyabean ₹5,328/quintal (8.9 per cent), Sesamum ₹9,846/quintal (6.2 per cent), Cotton (Long staple) ₹8,110/quintal (7.8 per cent).
“There is a balance in pricing as a nominal hike has been given to paddy, whereas maize has been raised substantially, signalling farmers to shift to the coarse cereal. However, unless there is a sugar model for maize, making MSP mandatory for processors, the shifting is not easy. However, the government is equally sensitive towards soyabean as many growers in Madhya Pradesh last year had shifted to maize, and a decent hike has been given,” said a former agriculture secretary.
But, oilseeds is one sector where the government needs to do more, he said, while suggesting import duty of edible oils should be calibrated automatically as per global prices, so that the imported oils remain costlier than domestically produced edible oils. He also said the hike in cotton MSP is not the solution to raise area and the government should address it comprehensively.
Published on May 28, 2025
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The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making
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It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution
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