CCEA Clears Rabi MSP Rise for 2027-28, Safflower Up Rs 675

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), which the Prime Minister chairs, cleared an increase in the minimum support prices of every mandated rabi crop for marketing season 2027-28. The decision covers six crops and is meant to leave growers with a paying price and to nudge them towards crops other than cereals.

Which crop gained the most

In rupee terms the largest step-up went to safflower, whose floor price rose by Rs 675 a quintal. Rapeseed and mustard came next with a rise of Rs 413 a quintal. Lentil, better known as masur, gained Rs 390, barley Rs 136, gram Rs 83 and wheat Rs 25 a quintal over the rates of the previous marketing season.

Rise and margin, crop by crop

The one-and-a-half-times rule

The revision follows the promise made in the Union Budget of 2018-19, under which a floor price is to be set at no less than one and a half times the all-India weighted average cost of production. Measured that way, wheat carries the widest cushion at 106 per cent above cost, while safflower carries the narrowest at 50 per cent. The cost that the calculation uses takes in hired labour, machine and bullock labour, rent on leased land, seed, fertiliser, manure, irrigation charges, depreciation, interest on working capital, fuel and power for pump sets, and the imputed worth of family labour.

What procurement records show

Between 2014-15 and 2025-26 wheat bought at the floor price came to 3,715 lakh metric tonnes, against 2,254 lakh metric tonnes between 2004-05 and 2013-14. Taking all six rabi crops together, procurement rose to 3,921 lakh metric tonnes from 2,302 lakh metric tonnes across the same pair of periods. Payments moved in step: wheat growers were paid Rs 7.31 lakh crore against Rs 2.56 lakh crore earlier, and growers of the six rabi crops together Rs 8.36 lakh crore against Rs 2.65 lakh crore. The government reads the higher floor prices for pulses and oilseeds as an incentive for crop diversification.