Centre to announce Kharif MSP next week

The Union Cabinet will finalise the minimum support prices (MSP) for the notified Kharif crops next Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday told farmers from five states.

The Cabinet would approve the implementation of minimum support price of 150 per cent of the input cost, in its forthcoming meeting, the prime minister said.

He also announced to declare the fair and remunerative price (FRP) of sugarcane for the 2018-19 season "within the next two weeks," saying it would be certainly higher than the 2017-18 rate, with incentive the farmers growing the sugarcane with the recovery higher than 9.5 per cent, said an official press release by the Prime Minister''s Office (PMO).

Modi was interacting with over 140 sugarcane growers drawn from Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Maharashtra and Karnataka on understand their issues and assure them that the government wants to take all steps that boost their income.

He claimed the government has taken special policy measures that resulted in liquidation of arrears of the sugarcane farmers to the tune of over Rs 4,000 crore in last 10 days. He said the state governments have been also asked to pitch in for liquidation of their dues from the sugar mills.

The prime minister also apprised farmers that he impressed upon the corporates during his recent interaction to increase the private sector investment for value addition to the farmers'' produces, through warehousing, storage facilities, better quality seeds, and market linkages.