MSP for paddy
MSP = Minimum Support Price- How often
- Every yearBefore the kharif sowing season, usually May–June
- Last released
- 13 May 20262026–27
2026–27, up from ₹2,369 in 2025–26.
Events on this chart
Source: CCEA, released 13 May 2026 · Chart: Clarity UPSC
- Previous
- ₹2,3692025–26
- Highest
- ₹2,4412026–27
- Lowest
- ₹1,9402021–22
6 readings since 2021–22.
Story
The price at which the government stands ready to buy paddy from farmers.
What is happening now As of 2026–27
For the 2026-27 kharif marketing season, the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for common paddy is ₹2,441 per quintal, ₹72 or 3.0% more than ₹2,369 in 2025-26. Grade A paddy gets ₹2,461. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved these prices on 13 May 2026, the same levels the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) had recommended.
The CACP projected the cost of growing paddy, counting paid-out costs and family labour (A2+FL), at ₹1,627 a quintal, so the MSP is 1.5 times that cost: the minimum the government has promised since the Union Budget 2018-19. Other crops got larger increases, such as ₹622 for sunflower seed and ₹557 for cotton, as the government promotes crops other than cereals. The CACP also recommended a review of open-ended paddy procurement, citing persistently excess rice stocks that strain storage and public finances.
Why it matters
The Minimum Support Price (MSP) puts a floor under what a paddy farmer can earn. Where government agencies buy at the MSP, farmers can sow knowing the price they will get, which protects them when market prices fall at harvest.
Paddy bought at the MSP stocks the central pool, which supplies rice under the National Food Security Act and other welfare schemes. Each increase raises the cost of procurement and the food subsidy, and it shapes what farmers grow: the government gives larger increases to pulses, oilseeds and nutri cereals to draw farmers towards crops other than rice and wheat.
What it is
The Minimum Support Price (MSP) is the price at which the government stands ready to buy a crop from farmers. For paddy it is fixed per quintal for each kharif marketing season, with a slightly higher MSP for Grade A paddy than for common paddy.
The Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) recommends MSPs for 22 crops, and the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approves them. The CACP weighs the cost of production, demand and supply, domestic and world prices, the terms of trade between farming and other sectors, and the effect on the rest of the economy.
Since 2018-19, MSPs are fixed at least 1.5 times the all-India weighted average cost of production. One MSP applies to the whole country. The CACP also uses it to steer the crop pattern towards national needs and to encourage better technology.
Read this number
- The publisher
- The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approves minimum support prices on the advice of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices.
Terms on this page (2)
- CACP
- Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices
- CCEA
- Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs
History
- 8 Jan 1965The Agricultural Prices Commission is set up.
- 18 Mar 1985It is renamed the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP).
- 2018The Union Budget 2018-19 commits to Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) of at least 1.5 times the cost of production; the 2018-19 MSPs meet this for all mandated crops.
Readings
| Period | Value | Status | Released |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026–27 | ₹2,441 | Final | 13 May 2026 |
| 2025–26 | ₹2,369 | Final | 12 Dec 2025 |
| 2024–25 | ₹2,300 | Final | 12 Dec 2025 |
| 2023–24 | ₹2,183 | Final | 12 Dec 2025 |
| 2022–23 | ₹2,040 | Final | 12 Dec 2025 |
| 2021–22 | ₹1,940 | Final | 12 Dec 2025 |
For UPSC
Know who recommends the Minimum Support Price (MSP), the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), and who approves it, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA). Know the 22 mandated crops plus the fair and remunerative price for sugarcane, and the A2+FL versus C2 cost question behind the 1.5-times rule.