Awareness and operations of minimum support price policy in Tamil Nadu

The Support Prices announced by the government is moved with a purpose of providing price security to farmers . This study assess the level of awareness on price support policy, to study the relationship between, Minimum Support Price and price realized by the farmers and to study the implementation of MSP Policy in Tamil Nadu. This study found that 55 per cent of farm households are not aware of MSP of crops grown by them which is a cause of concern. The crops like paddy, maize, green gram, cotton and sugarcane price realized by the farmer was less than the announced MSP. Out of few who were aware of MSP, nearly 20 per cent of farmers reported not selling the produce to procurement agencies. The important advantages from the procurement agencies are immediate payment for the produce and genuineness in weighment. To increase the awareness about MSP of crops and to take benefit of it, better network of procurement agencies should be developed. Decentralized procurement agencies with local presence coupled with increased drying facility, storage capacity and deficiency payments can extend the benefits of support prices to a larger segment of the farming community.