_{^{Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement accepting the protesting farmers’ key demand – repeal of the three farm laws – farmers’ unions have said their protest will continue until their six remaining demands, including the legal mandate for minimum support prices (MSP), are met.}}

Over the years, the Union government went on to announce MSPs for as many as 23 crops, but the actual procurement by the government remained confined to mainly wheat and paddy, that too in the northern states, which became the cradle of the green revolution and continue to serve the nation.

Of the 23 crops that the government currently announces MSPs for every year, there are seven cereals (paddy, wheat, maize, bajra, jowar, ragi and barley), five pulses (chana, arhar, moong, urad and masur), seven oilseeds (groundnut, soybean, rapeseed-mustard, sesame, sunflower, niger seed and safflower) and four commercial crops (sugarcane, cotton, copra and jute.)

Legalising MSP would put the government under a legal obligation to buy every grain of the crops for which MSPs are announced. For this, the Union government will have to spend Rs 17 lakh crore, according to the rough estimate from government officials which was shared during the talks between the government and farm unions last year.

Another argument against the farmers’ demand is that if the Union government makes MSP a legal mandate to ensure that private players or government agencies buy the crops at least at the fixed price anywhere in the country, there will be a price rise and increased inflation in general.