Market Assurance Scheme (MAS) to help farmers if prices of the crops falls below MSP, may be launched soon

The Government of India is planning to launch┬аMarket Assurance Scheme (MAS) to help farmers across the country whenever prices of the crops drops below┬аminimum support┬аprices (MSP). The center government will be allocating a budget of Rs. 500 crores for the same.

The objective of the┬аMarket Assurance Scheme (MAS) is to strengthen the state procurement and ensure that the farmers suffer due to inefficiencies in the procurement system and also due to fall in market prices. The Agriculture Ministry is working along with the state government and coming up with the initial draft of the scheme.

Market Assurance Scheme (MAS): Highlights

  • ┬аA scheme to help farmers when the prices of the crops fall below minimum support prices
  • A corpus of Rs. 500 crores will be created by the center government for the MAS
  • The state government will be authorized to decide on the procurement at MSP
  • The states will procure crops if the actual prices fall below MSP whenever notified by the center government
  • The center government will provide interest free capital to state for the procurement
  • States will decide when to start procurement
  • States will┬аprocure crops through public/private agencies or central┬аprocurement agencies
  • States has the responsibility regarding the disposal of the procured crops
  • Losses to the states will be compensated by the center government at maximum 40% of MSP, though just 30% of the MSP will be good enough to cover all the losses according to government
  • In the Himalayan and Northern region in the country the center government will compensate at 40% considering┬аconstraints of infrastructure and operations
  • Rice and Wheat are not covered under┬аMarket Assurance Scheme (MAS)
  • At present they both are procured by Food Corporation of India (FCI) and state agencies under Price Support Scheme (PSS)

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