The government has reportedly proposed to farmers protesting at the Delhi border that it will procure pulses, cotton, and maize if they grow these crops instead of rice and wheat and that it will procure the output at minimum support prices (MSP). This is a sensible suggestion as farmers in northwest India need to break away from the rice-wheat cycle and diversify their crops.
It falls short of the demand for a legally guaranteed MSP above 50 per cent of all cash costs and the imputed value of family labour, capital assets, and farmland employed in cultivation. Instead, the government has reportedly offered a five-year buyback commitment of the aforementioned crops.