Assam Government announces MSP (Minimum Support Price) for mustard seeds

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: For the first time, the Assam Government has announced the MSP (Minimum Support Price) for mustard seeds to enable farmers to opt for the second cropping.

Making this announcement today, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “Farmers sell mustard at Rs 4,500 per quintal in the market now. We have fixed the MSP for mustard at Rs 5,450 per quintal. From now on, all purchasers, whether individuals or mill owners, have to pay the MSP. The government has decided to procure mustard seeds in the existing 94 paddy procurement centres. The government will procure mustard and sell it to NAFED (National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd.), which will pay the farmers within three days. The target of the government is to procure 45 MT of mustard seeds per annum.”

The Chief Minister said, “We announced the MSP for paddy earlier, and we announced that for mustard seed today. Our next step is to provide subsidies to dairy farmers at the rate of Rs 5 per litre, with effect from tomorrow. However, we are collecting the list of farmers from the cooperative societies. Since the amount is meagre, we will pay them once a year.”

He said, “We are doing all these as these farmers constitute the base of the state economy. We need to strengthen their financial status. With the fixing of MSP, the procurement of paddy has grown manifold this year, benefiting the farmers.”

An individual farmer can sell up to 25 quintals of mustard seeds per day with a moisture content of less than eight percent and foreign matter of less than two percent. The procurement period is from June 1 to August 26.

In 2020–21, Assam was in the eighth position in mustard production with 1.85 lakh MT. Mustard is cultivated on around 2.86 lakh hectares of land in the state.”

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