Summary
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved Minimum Support Prices for six mandated rabi crops for Rabi Marketing Season 2027-28. Safflower got the largest increase, ₹675 to ₹7,215 per quintal, followed by mustard (₹413 to ₹6,613) and masur (₹390 to ₹7,390).
Wheat rose just ₹25 to ₹2,610. The government says the new MSPs give farmers a margin of 50% to 106% over the all-India weighted average cost of production (A2+FL). Wheat sits at the top of that range at 106%, even with the smallest increase.
The skewed hikes are a deliberate signal to move farmers from cereals towards pulses and oilseeds. Whether that signal changes sowing decisions depends less on the announced price than on whether the state actually buys at it.
WHY IN NEWS FOR UPSC & STATE PCS
The CCEA approved MSPs for the six mandated rabi crops for marketing season 2027-28, with safflower receiving the highest absolute increase of ₹675 per quintal and wheat the smallest at ₹25. Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the new prices ensure a margin of 50% to 106% over the A2+FL cost of production.
The announcement comes just as rabi sowing begins after a southwest monsoon that ended 12.6% below normal.
Standard News
The Price Is Announced for Everyone. The Purchase Is Guaranteed for Some.
The headline numbers from Rabi MSP 2027-28 look like a clear message. Safflower gets ₹675 more per quintal, mustard ₹413, masur ₹390. Wheat gets ₹25, a rise of under 1% on last year's ₹2,585, which is less than inflation.
Read this way, the Centre is pricing farmers out of wheat and into oilseeds and pulses. A farmer deciding what to sow this month does not read the table that way. She asks two questions: what price is announced and how likely is it that someone will actually pay it to me?
The policy depends on the gap between those two questions.
Why ₹25 can still beat ₹413 Take a wheat grower in Punjab or Haryana.
His ₹2,610 already carries a 106% margin over A2+FL, so the price is more than double his paid-out costs plus family labour. More importantly, that price is close to certain. Wheat sits inside the country's largest procurement system.
Government agencies buy at scale from regulated mandis and the grain feeds the public distribution system. For him, the MSP works as a floor under the market price. Even a rise that is small in real terms keeps a very safe, very profitable crop safe and profitable.
Now take a mustard grower in Rajasthan. Her ₹6,613 carries a 96% margin on paper, nearly as good as wheat. But mustard is bought under the Price Support Scheme of PM-AASHA and that scheme generally lets the state buy only up to 25% of a state's production.
In a good harvest, when mandi prices fall below MSP, three-quarters of the crop has no guaranteed buyer at the announced price. Her real expected price is the MSP multiplied by her chance of selling to the state, plus the market price for whatever is left.
That is very different from ₹6,613.
The one crop where signal and support line up Masur shows what happens when the price signal is backed by a purchase commitment.
Since 2024-25, tur, urad and masur can be procured up to 100% of a state's production. Budget 2025 extended this window for four more years, through central nodal agencies such as NAFED and NCCF. Masur's ₹390 rise (92% margin) is therefore a credible offer, not just a figure in a table. Safflower and mustard have no such guarantee.
Who carries the risk The households most likely to switch are the ones least able to take a chance.
Mustard and masur are largely rainfed and sown on moisture left in the soil after the monsoon. This year that monsoon ended 12.6% below normal. A small farmer with no irrigation and no savings cannot afford to bet a season on a price that may not reach her. The wheat farmer has irrigation, procurement and a 106% margin. He has no reason to move.
The exam insight: An MSP is two things, a price and a promise to buy. India uses the first to signal and the second to protect, but gives the second in full only to rice, wheat and three pulses. Until procurement for oilseeds is as reliable as the headline hikes, the cropping pattern will follow the purchase guarantee, not the price.
Quick Facts
Key numbers & takeaways — revise these first
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Approving body: Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), on the recommendation of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP).
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2.
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Season: Rabi Marketing Season (RMS) 2027-28, six mandated rabi crops.
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Safflower: ₹7,215 per quintal, up ₹675 (10.3%), the highest absolute increase.
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Rapeseed and mustard: ₹6,613 per quintal, up ₹413, margin of 96% over A2+FL.
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Masur (lentil): ₹7,390 per quintal, up ₹390, margin of 92% over A2+FL.
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Wheat: ₹2,610 per quintal, up ₹25, margin of 106% over A2+FL, the highest of all six crops.
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Gram: ₹5,958 per quintal, margin of 59%.
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Barley: ₹2,286 per quintal, margin of 58%.
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Overall margin range: 50% to 106% over the all-India weighted average cost of production.
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A2+FL means all paid-out costs plus the imputed value of unpaid family labour.
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The rule of fixing MSP at least 1.5 times this cost dates from the Union Budget 2018-19.
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10.
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Under the PM-AASHA Price Support Scheme, pulses and oilseeds can generally be procured up to 25% of a state's production.
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Tur, urad and masur can be procured up to 100%.
Connect the dots for your UPSC preparation.
Standard news covers the event. Log in to read our comprehensive analysis and uncover the hidden constitutional, structural, and ethical dimensions of this topic:
A breakdown of the hidden margin arithmetic: how wheat's ₹25 rise on a 106% margin compares with mustard's ₹413 on 96% and why the farmer's expected price, not the announced one, decides what gets sown.
The three structural causes that keep the cereal bias in place despite skewed MSP hikes, including the 25% Price Support Scheme ceiling and the procurement-to-PDS link that only wheat and rice enjoy.
How this year's 12.6% monsoon deficit falls hardest on the exact rainfed farmers the price signal is aimed at and what that means for rabi sowing.
A short-term and long-term way forward, from making the Price Deficiency Payment route usable for oilseeds to tying MSP increases to procurement capacity.
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