Chidambaram: Positive signal

New Delhi, Nov. 5: The government today hiked the minimum support price (MSP) of wheat by Rs 20 a quintal to encourage farmers to grow more during the rabi season.

On October 1, the Centre had a buffer stock of 28.4 million tonnes of wheat against a norm of 11 million tonnes.

“MSP of wheat has been fixed at Rs 1,100 per quintal, an increase of Rs 20 per quintal over last year’s minimum support price,” Union home minister P. Chidambaram told reporters after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).

Last year, the government had raised wheat MSP by Rs 80 to Rs 1,080 a quintal. The increase was nominal this year as the prices of essential food items had risen after farm output declined because of drought and floods.

Robust production and higher remunerative price last year have helped the government to achieve a record procurement of wheat in the 2009-10 marketing season (April-March) at over 25 million tonnes. Wheat output stood at 80.58 million tonnes last year.

MSP for the other rabi crop chana has also been increased by Rs 30 to Rs 1,760 per quintal.

Oil block division

The CCEA today approved the splitting of an oil and gas block located in the Assam-Nagaland region into two so that exploration can be carried out at the Nagaland section.

While exploration was completed in the Assam portion of the block, no work could be done in Nagaland before the expiry of a seven-year exploration phase on March 26, 2008.

“The main objective of the approval is to enable carrying out an additional exploration work programme in the Nagaland portion by signing a separate production sharing contract,” an official release said.