Even as farmer unions are aggressively seeking minimum support price (MSP) as per the recommendation of the Swaminathan Commission, the Union Government has on several occasions claimed to be abiding by its suggestions.

The concerns raised by farmers “mainly related to (a) continuance of the minimum support price (MSP)—procurement system, (b) legalising MSP, and (c) vulnerability of small and marginal farmers vis-à-vis the large private players,” wrote CSC Sekhar of Delhi’s Institute of Economic Growth in Economic and Political Weekly last year. According to him the three issues mentioned are interlinked.

Back in December 2018, then Minister of State for Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Parshottam Rupala, assured, “National Commission on Farmers headed by Dr M S Swaminathan submitted its report in 2006. One of the recommendations of the Commission was that MSP should be at least 50% more than the weighted average cost of production. This recommendation was not incorporated in the National policy for Farmers 2007. However, recently Government has increased the MSP for all kharif and rabi crops and other commercial crops for the season 2018-19 with a return of at least 50% over cost of production, which was a historic decision by the Government.”