Union Government increases MSP of pulses, oil-seeds and cotton

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The Union Government has increased the minimum support price (MSP) of pulses, oil-seeds and cotton for the 2017-18 crop year and asked states to procure it by all means so that the farmers are not forced to sell it at low prices. Idea of this move is to provide remunerative prices to farmers when the prices are under pressure due to supply glut.

The maximum hike in the MSP is fixed for pulses whose output is estimated to be a record 22.40 million tonnes (MT) in the 2016-17 crop year ending June, as against 16.35 MT in 2015-16. The record production was attributed to good monsoon, higher MSP and better procurement arrangement.
The MSP of tur (arhar) is increased from Rs 5,050 per quintal (including bonus) in 2016-17 to Rs 5,450 per quintal (including Rs 200 bonus) in 2017-18 — a hike of 400 per quintal.

Similarly, the support price of Urad increased from Rs 5,000 (including bonus) per quintal in 2016-17 to Rs 5,400 (including bonus) per quintal in 2017-18. In case of Moon Dal, it is increased from Rs 5,225 (including bonus) per quintal in 2016-17 to Rs 5,575 (including bonus) in 2017-18.
Among oilseeds, the government has increased the MSP of groundnut-in-shell (Rs 4,450 per quintal), soyabean (Rs 3,050 per quintal), sunflower seed (Rs 4,100 per quintal), sesamum (Rs 5,300 per quintal) and nigerseed (Rs 4,050 per quintal).

“The prices of various varities of cotton are fixed keeping in view the normal market price differentials between their staple lengths and other technical parameters”, said an agriculture ministry’s note to the states, informing about the government’s latest MSP hike. The ministry wrote to the states on June 13.