SKM rejects rabi MSP as 'insult', demands C2+50% guarantee for six crops

The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella organisation of about 500 farmers' outfits, has rejected the minimum support price (MSP) announced for the coming rabi season, calling it an insult to farmers and demanding an immediate revision.

In a statement issued on Saturday, October 4, 2026, the SKM said the Narendra Modi government was speaking "Washington language" to the farmers and rural youth of the country. The 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 a quintal. That is 25 paise a kilo. It will not buy even a third of a litre of diesel. Yet the government calls it a '106% profit'. If farming paid like that, no young person would have to leave the village in search of work," the SKM statement said.

The MSP is fixed by the Union government each year on the recommendation of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP). The Centre calculates returns using the A2+FL formula, which covers actual paid-out costs and an imputed value for family labour. The SKM, like several other farmers' groups, has long argued that this leaves out two real costs: the rent a family forgoes on its own land, and the interest it forgoes on its own capital. Adding these gives the comprehensive cost of production, or C2.

"The full cost is C2, and the Swaminathan Commission said the MSP must be C2+50%," the statement said. "Counting the full cost, even on the CACP's own data, the wheat margin is 43%, not 106%. Not one rabi crop gets C2+50%."

The SKM said no State government was heard on the matter, "not even the BJP's own State governments", and described this as an anti-federal policy. It pointed to a communication from the Finance Ministry in January 2026 asking every State to consider discontinuing its bonus on wheat and paddy, based on the CACP's view that such bonuses distort the market. "That is the very charge the United States makes against India's MSP at the WTO [World Trade Organization]. Our government now speaks Washington's language against our own farmers," the SKM said.

The farmers' body demanded a legally guaranteed MSP at C2+50% on an honestly calculated cost, and set out the prices it wants: wheat at no less than ₹3,418 a quintal, barley ₹3,518, gram ₹9,205, lentil (masur) ₹9,947, rapeseed and mustard ₹8,684, and safflower ₹10,630. It also sought respect for States' price recommendations and full freedom for States to pay a bonus.

The Union government's stated position is that MSP is fixed at a minimum of 1.5 times the A2+FL cost of production, a commitment announced in the 2018 Budget. It has not issued a public response to the SKM's latest statement.

The SKM was the principal platform for the 2020-21 agitation against three farm laws, which the Union government repealed in November 2021. A legal guarantee for MSP was among the demands that remained unresolved when that movement was called off, and farmers' groups have continued to press the issue since. The SKM has said copies of the order will be burnt in villages as part of its campaign.