New Delhi: The Finance Ministry on Friday said that under the Modi government the MSP regime has both improved and increase adding that there has been a substantial hike in MSP of Paddy, Wheat, pulses, Oilseeds and Copra in the last five years.
“Following the recommendation of the National Commission of Farmers 2006, headed by Mr. Swaminathan, the government, in 2018, had increased the MSP at 1.5 times the production cost, which is the chief determinant of MSP. It implies that the guaranteed price to the farmers during normal times (good mon-soon) or in times of price fluctuations and market uncertainties has further in-creased,” a Finance Ministry statement said.
The Finance Ministry said, MSP payment to the farmers for Paddy has been increased by 2.4 times during last five years in comparison to the period from 2009-10 to 2013-14. The MSP Payment of Rs 4.95 lakh crore has been made as against Rs 2.06 lakhs crore in the last 5 years.
MSP payment to the farmers for pulses has seen the most substantial hike. It has increased by 75 times during last five years in comparison to the period from 2009-10 to 2013-14. MSP Payment of Rs 49,000 crore has been made as against Rs 645 crore in last 5 years.
MSP payment to the farmers for Wheat has increased by 1.77 times during last five years in comparison to the period from 2009-10 to 2013-14. MSP Payment of Rs 2.97 lakh crore has been made as against Rs 1.68 lakh crore during last 5 years. MSP payment to the farmers for Oilseeds and Copra has been increased by 10 times during last five years in comparison to the period from 2009-10 to 2013-14. The MSP Payment of Rs 25,000 Crore has been made as against Rs 2,460 Crore in last 5 years, the ministry said.
Procurement of wheat from farmers for Rabi 2020, by government agen-cies has touched an all-time high record figure when total procurement for the Central pool reached 382 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT).
All over India, 42 lakh farmers were paid Rs 73,500 Crore, towards Mini-mum Support Price for wheat in the current Rabi season. This year Madhya Pradesh became the largest contributor to Central pool with 129 LMT wheat, surpassing Punjab which procured 127 LMT. Haryana, Uttar Pra-desh and Rajasthan also made significant contributions to the national pro-curement of wheat.
During the same period, 119 Lakh MT paddy was also procured by the gov-ernment agencies through 13,606 purchase centres.
