Samyukt Kisan Morcha rejects Rabi MSP, demands revision

Image is for representational purposes only. | Photo credit: Nagara Gopal

The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella organization of about 500 farming outfits, said in a statement on Saturday (October 4, 2026) that the recently announced minimum support price (MSP) for the upcoming rabi crops was an insult to farmers. The Narendra Modi government has been speaking the “language of Washington” to the country’s farmers and rural youth, SKM said.

The farmers’ body asked farmers and youth to burn copies of the government order in every village. “The government has raised the MSP of wheat by ₹25 per metric cent. That is 25 paise per kilo. It will not buy even a third of a liter of diesel. Yet the government calls it ‘106% profit’. If agriculture was paid like this (with 106% profit), no young person would have to leave the village in search of work,” SKM said in a statement.

The government’s “costs” (A2 or actual costs paid + FL or family labor) leave out rent from the family’s own land and interest on its equity, SKM said. “The full cost is C2 (comprehensive cost of production) and the Swaminathan Commission has said that MSP must be C2 + 50%. After factoring in the total cost, even based on CACP’s (Commission on Agricultural Costs and Prices) own data, the wheat margin is 43%, not 106%. Not a single rabi crop has achieved C2 + 50%.”

“No one has been heard, not even the BJP’s own state governments. This is BJP’s anti-federal policy: to strip the states of their powers and pile them up in Delhi. In January 2026, the finance ministry asked every state to consider ending its wheat and paddy bonuses. The CACP says such bonuses distort the market. That is the main allegation now being leveled by India’s WTO government or the United States against India’s WTO government. Washington’s language against our own to farmers,” said SKM.

SKM demanded a legally guaranteed MSP of C2+50% for honestly calculated costs. “Immediate revision: wheat at not less than ₹ 3,418, barley at ₹ 3,518, gram at ₹ 9,205, lentil (masur) at ₹ 9,947, rape and mustard at ₹ 8,684 and safflower at $3 0.10 (we) demand freedom at 10, we, 6 bonus,” SKM said.

Published – 04 Oct 2026 22:32 IST