(a) whether Minimum Support Price is not available for all crops;
(b) if so, whether the Government has proposed to extend support price cover to all crops;
(c) if so, the details thereof, crops-wise;
(d) the steps being taken by the Government to ensure stability in the prices of the agricultural
produces for which Minimum Support Prices are not fixed; and
(e) the action plans formulated by the Government for the welfare of the small and marginal farmers
in the country?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE (SHRI KANTI LAL BHURIA)
(a): The Minimum Support Price (MSP) is not available to all crops.
(b)&(c): The Government has no proposal to extend coverage of MSP to all crops.
(d): In order to protect the growers of horticultural commodities and perishable agricultural
commodities from distress sales in the event of bumper crop, the Government implements the Market
Intervention Scheme (MIS). MIS is implemented for a particular commodity on the request of the State
Government. Losses if any, incurred by the procuring agencies are shared between the Central
Government and the concerned State Government on 50:50 basis (75:25 in case of North Eastern States).
The amount of loss to be shared between the Central Government and the concerned State Government is
restricted to 25 percent of the procurement cost.
(e): In order to increase production and productivity, the Government has taken several initatives like
Integrated Cereals Development Programme (ICDP) for Rice, Wheat and Coarse Cereals, Integrated
Scheme of Oilseeds, Pulses, Oilpalm and Maize (ISOPOM), enhancing institutional credit flow to the
farmers, ensuring timely availability of quality inputs, accelerating diversification to high value crops
including horticulture, optimizing the efficient utilization of available water resources through micro
irrigation and enhancing the sustainability of dryland/rain fed farming systems, reforming agricultural
markets, putting in place a broader spectrum of risk management apparatus for farmers, etc.