Do Rice Farmers Realize Minimum Support Price? An Investigation across Indian States Samal Parshuram Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack – 753 006, Odisha Online published on 9 October, 2012. Abstract The effectiveness of support price mechanism has been examined in major rice-growing states of India using cost of cultivation data of different states for the period 1980–81 to 2009–10. The average profit over C2 cost of cultivation has been found to vary from  29 to 27489 in different states over the period 1987–89 to 2007–09. However, in the majority of states, the profit has been observed to be negative over C2 costs in many years. The study has revealed that while irrigated states like Punjab, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh are able to increase profit by increasing input-use, the states like Tamil Nadu have failed due to negative growth rate in yield. The profit (over A2+FL cost) in Assam, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Karnataka, Kerala, West Bengal has shown a negative growth trend during this period. Though the support price mechanism is working well in the irrigated states, it has failed in the rainfed states and more so in the eastern states, viz. Assam, undivided Bihar, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. These five states account for 48 per cent of the total rice production of India and contribute 26 per cent to the central pool of rice buffer stock. Therefore, the government should review the procurement operations in these states on priority and should make concerted efforts in developing additional storage facilities and market yards with involvement of private agencies in the procurement operations, so that farmers get right price as well as encouragement to adopt modern farming practices. This will increase rice productivity and alleviate poverty. Top Keywords MSP, support price, rice, Indian states. Top |