Most crops are being sold at prices lower than the minimum support price (MSP) fixed for the Rabi season 2026, making it difficult for farmers to recover their costs.
The latest weekly report of the Crop Weather Watch Group under the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare also said the wholesale price of 12 crops is less than the MSP. These 12 crops include wheat, maize, pigeon pea, gram, lentils, moong, urad, jowar, bajra, ragi, groundnut and sunflower.
Among coarse cereals being encouraged by the government, the prices of ragi, maize and bajra have fallen the most. Ragi is being sold at Rs 3,092 per quintal, 36.72 per cent less than its MSP of Rs 4,886 per quintal. Similarly, maize is being sold at Rs 1,689 per quintal against Rs 2,400 and bajra at Rs 2,161 per quintal against Rs 2,775. Maize is being sold at 29.63 per cent less than its MSP and bajra at 22.13 per cent less than its MSP.
Rajesh Shivhare, an arhtiya (agricultural broker) in Barigarh town of Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh, told Down to Earth (DTE) that gram is currently being sold at Rs 5,000 per quintal and the price of wheat, the most important Rabi crop, is Rs 2,100 to Rs 2,000 per quintal. That is, gram is being sold at Rs 875 less than the MSP of Rs 5,875 and wheat is being sold at about Rs 600 less than the MSP of Rs 2,585.
Ashok Nigam, a local journalist living in Banda district of Uttar Pradesh, said due to the lack of government procurement at MSP, farmers are having to sell their produce at throwaway prices because they have to pay for harvesting, labour, irrigation, etc. soon. He also pointed out that there is moisture in wheat due to unseasonal rains, because of which government procurement has been hampered. Nigam said the price of crops is so low that the input cost of farmers is not being recouped.
There are many farmers who are reluctant to take their produce to the market due to low prices. Bindravan, a farmer from Pupwara village in Uttar Pradesh’s Mahoba district, told DTE that he had planted white peas in his fields this year, which are currently being sold at Rs 3,000 per quintal, compared to Rs 4,500-Rs 5,000 per quintal last year. He said there was no point in selling the crop at this price. He and most of the farmers in the surrounding villages sell their produce to arhtiyas in Kharela town because the government market is far from their village and the cost of transporting the crop to the government market is high.
Ghanshyam, an arhtiya in the grain market in Mahoba, told DTE that the price of all crops has come down due to the sudden arrival of produce. He added that only mustard is best priced, currently being sold at Rs 6,200-Rs 6,600 per quintal. This is the only crop in the entire market which is being sold at its proper MSP or more.