Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday welcomed the central government’s decision of hiking the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for Kharif crops.
Chouhan told ANI, “I would like to thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The decision to increase MSP for Kharif crop is historic. This is the biggest decision for the upliftment of farmers in independent India. Giving a 50 percent increase in the production of Kharif crops is a great decision.”
He added that the decision will help fulfill Prime Minister Modi’s promise of doubling farmers’ income by 2022.
Earlier on Wednesday, in order to boost the income of the farmers, the Union Cabinet approved the MSP for 14 Kharif crops for the year 2018-19.
The meeting chaired by Prime Minister Modi approved the proposal made by Union Minister Arun Jaitley in the Budget 2018 of hiking the support price by one-and-a-half times of the production cost for Kharif crops.
MSP is referred to a price at which the government buys crops from the farmers.
The MSP for paddy has been increased by around Rs 200 per quintal, jowar (hybrid) by Rs 730 per quintal and ragi by Rs 997 per quintal.
The MSP of paddy (common grade) has been increased by Rs 200 to Rs 1,750 per quintal, while that of Grade A variety by Rs 160 per quintal to Rs 1,750.
The MSP of medium staple cotton has been increased to Rs 5,150 from Rs 4,020 earlier, and that of long staple cotton to Rs 5,450 from Rs 4,320 per quintal.
In pulses, MSP of tur dal has been raised to Rs 5,675 per quintal from Rs 5,450, while that of moong dal to Rs 6,975 per quintal from Rs 5,575.
In his 2018 Budget speech, Jaitley had announced that Niti Aayog in consultation with central and state governments will put in place a mechanism to ensure farmers get benefits of the minimum support price.
Since 2007-08, the MSP has gone up from Rs 745 to Rs 1550 per quintal.
In 2008-09, the MSP was increased from Rs 745 per quintal in the previous fiscal year (FY) to Rs 900 per quintal (an increase of Rs 155 per quintal). Rs 100 per quintal on MSP was also raised by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in FY 2009-10. (ANI)