Government hikes MSP for paddy and 13 other crops

The cabinet on Wednesday increased the minimum support price (MSP) for 14 crops for the 2022-23 kharif marketing season.

The highest absolute increase in minimum support price over the previous year has been recommended for sesamum (Rs 523/quintal), moong (Rs 480/quintal) and sunflower seeds (Rs 385/quintal).

The MSP for paddy has been increased by Rs 100 to Rs 2,040/quintal. Paddy is a major kharif crop for which sowing has already begun.


"Approved rates are in line with the principle of fixing the MSPs at a level of at least 1.5 times," said information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur.

The return over MSP for bajra, tur, urad sunflower seed, soybean and groundnut is more than 50% over the all-India weighted average cost of production. For bajra it is 85%, 60% for tur, 59% for urad, 56% for sunflower seed, 53% for soybean and 51% for groundnut.

Concerted effort has been made over the last few years to realign the MSP in favour of oilseeds, pulses and coarse cereals to encourage farmers to bring larger areas under these crops and adopt best technologies and farm practices to correct demand-supply imbalance, the government said in a statement.

According to the third advance estimates for 2021-22, the country is estimated to have produced a record 314.51 million tonnes of food grains, up 3.77 million tonnes from 2020-21 and higher by 23.80 million tonnes from the average of the previous five years (2016-17 to 2020-21).