Fixing MSP

Avik Saha, Co convenor of Jai Kisan Andolan campaign, has had a new routine from April 3. Every day, he collects and shares the real prices farmers fetch in mandis (agricultural markets) for a crop he monitors about 20 crops on the social media. The "MSP (minimum support price) Alert" initiative reveals the difference between the government fixed MSP and the actual money farmers take home. The results, so far, indicate that the spot prices farmers get when they sell their produce in major mandis, across India, are much below the MSP for all the crops.

Recently, Saha and his team worked out a formula to calculate what this means for the farmers' promised revenue at a consolidated level. For instance, they estimate that by April 5 the tur, arhar and red gram farmers of Maharashtra would have got `1,125 crore more than what they actually received, had their