The story so far: Last week, the Centre announced the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for this year’s summer (kharif) season crops, hiking prices between 5-10% from last season, “to ensure remunerative prices to growers for their produce and to encourage crop diversification.” A section of farmer representatives have expressed unhappiness over what they term as a ‘meagre’ hike in the MSP, defeating the government’s intent of securing a “remunerative price”. On the other hand, agriculture domain experts believe that an increase in the MSP may give a slight respite to growers, but argue that in the absence of any dependable or assured market mechanism of procurement-purchase for crops on the MSP in most parts of the country, the purpose of encouraging “crop diversification” gets defeated.
How does the MSP work?
The MSP, which is a part of the government’s agricultural price policy, is the price at which the government offers to procure farmers’ produce during the season. It works as a tool to stabilise production and to control consumer prices, yet farmers across the country have been facing problems of selling their produce at the MSP. Delays in establishing procurement centres, exploitation at the hands of commission agents, who most of the time buy the produce from farmers below the MSP, and a lack of awareness about the MSP among a large section of farmers, are some of the challenges growers have been facing for years now. Against this background, farmers have been demanding a ‘legal status’ to the MSP. The government, including the Centre and States, ought to come up with a system to set up an ‘assured market mechanism,’ point out farmers. The MSP has little meaning unless farmers’ produce is procured/purchased at the assured price.
