Government has increased the Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) of 22 kharif and rabi crops to a minimum of 50 percent returns over cost, the Ministry of Agriculture has said. The government has taken the decision after considering the views of the state governments.

The MSPs fixed by the government for most of these crops provide at least a return of 50 per cent over cost of production for the year 2018-19.

“Government has increased MSPs substantially for all mandated crops for the season 2018-19. This decision of the Government was a historic one as it fulfills the commitment to the farmers to provide 50 per cent return over cost of production for the first time for all mandated crops,” as said by Minister of State for Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.

The MSP for Kharif crops such as paddy has been increased from Rs 1550 to Rs 1750. For Jowar, the MSP has been increased from Rs 1700 to Rs 2430, which is the highest. The MSP of Bajra has been increased from Rs 1425 to Rs 1950.

For Rabi crops the increase is only marginal as all of the mandated rabi crops already has an MSP which provided returns of more than 50 per cent over cost except Safflower which provided only a 31.2 per cent returs over cost to farmers. Now after the revision in MSP, the returns of Safflower has been increased to Rs 4,945, providing a 50.1 per cent returns to farmers.

MSPs of these crops have been hiked after considering the increase in production costs such as labour, land rent, seeds, fertilizers, irrigation charges, electricity, etc.