MSP -- the factoids versus the facts -Reetika Khera, Sudha Narayanan and Prankur Gupta
-The Hindu The debate on agricultural issues must take into account the changed geography of procurement and the seller’s profile According to one definition, a factoid is “an item of unreliable information that is reported and repeated so often that it becomes accepted as fact”. After the passage of the three controversial farm laws, the Minimum Support Price (MSP) — not mentioned in the laws — has gained a lot of attention. The predominance of factoids about MSP and procurement has meant that the debate has yielded more chaff than grain. The MSP is meant to set a floor below which prices do not fall, and is announced by the government for 23 commodities. It is the price at which the government ‘promises’ to buy from farmers if market prices fall below it. In fact, however, government procurement is heavily concentrated on wheat and rice, with other crops barely being procured. Please click here to read more. |
The Hindu, 19 December, 2020, https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/msp-the-factoids-versus-the-facts/article33367929.ece?homepage=true
Tagged with: MSP Minimum Support Prices Minimum Support Price Procurement FCI PDS Public Distribution System Decentralized Procurement Scheme Small and Marginal Farmers
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