Punjab Government on Sunday sought minimum support price (MSP) for wheat of Rs1,950 per quintal for the Rabi season 2015-16 in accordance with prevalent input cost.
Approval was given by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to the recommendations of the State Agricultural department with regard to fixation of MSP for the crops of Rabi season 2015-16 by the Centre.
Badal has asked the Agriculture Director to shoot a letter to the Member Secretary of Commission for Agriculture Costs and Prices (CACP) for streamlining the policy regarding the marketing of Rabi crops in year 2015-16.
Spokesperson pointed that the State Government has recommended an increase in prices of such crops in proportion to the increase in their input costs. Keeping in view the steep hike in the input costs of agricultural commodities, the need of hour was to fix the prices of the Rabi crops accordingly.
Spokesperson pointed out that in order to fix the estimated cost of wheat crop for the year 2015-16, the market price of various inputs like seeds, fertilisers, insecticides, pesticides, irrigation and labour have been kept in mind along with various other factors including the marketing expenditure and weather risks.
Emphasising the need for an increase in MSP of wheat crop for the next year, the spokesperson said that keeping in view all these factors the MSP of the wheat must be fixed at Rs1,950 per quintal.
In the same manner, the Central Government must fix the MSP of other crops like barley, gram and mustard at Rs1,640, Rs3,800 and Rs3,600 per quintal respectively. The Agriculture Department had proposed the hike in MSP after determining input costs of the Rabi crops for which agricultural experts had thoroughly analysed the current situation, the spokesperson added.