A Comprehensive look into the MSP Criteria & Indian Agriculture
The uproar over Minimum Support Price (MSP) & the ensuing tussle between certain Farmer Groups and the ruling establishment is well known to all. In a very brief sense, MSP is the pre-determined price at which Governmental Bodies procure crops from the Farmers in case the market price falls below a specific level. The logic behind such a policy is to ensure the losses that a Farmer would incur if he sold his crops at the behest of market forces would be covered if the same was purchased by the Govt. at equivalent price instead. In recent years, ever since the debacle over the Farm Laws that were repealed in 2020 (a separate issue in which we're not delving right now) has subsided, new splinter groups have emerged modifying and enlarging their demand from rollback of the Laws to 'legalisation' of MSP under which governments would be bound to offer MSPs at equivalent/higher than prices set by market forces irrespective of the situation for all 23 crops or so, instead of
