The system of MSP Minimum Support Price) was first introduced for ______ in 1966-67 and later expanded to include other essential food crops.

🔑 Key Points
[Heading 2]:
→ The system of MSP (Minimum Support Price) was first introduced for wheat in 1966-67 and later expanded to include other essential food crops.
→ When the Green Revolution started in the 1960s, India was actively looking to shore up its food reserves and prevent shortages.
→ The MSP system finally started in 1966-67 for wheat and was expanded further to include other essential food crops. This was then sold to the poor at subsidized rates under the public distribution system.

📌 Important Points
→ MSP (Minimum Support Price): Form of market intervention by the Government of India to insure agricultural producers against any sharp fall in farm prices.
→ Announced on the basis of the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP).
→ Government announces minimum support prices (MSPs) for 22 mandated crops and fair and remunerative prices (FRP) for sugarcane.
→ The mandated crops are 14 crops of the Kharif season, 6 Rabi crops, and two other commercial crops.
→ The list of crops is as follows:
Cereals (7) – paddy, wheat, barley, jowar, bajra, maize, and ragi
Pulses (5) – gram, arhar/tur, moong, urad, and lentil
Oilseeds (8) – groundnut, rapeseed/mustard, toria, soyabean, sunflower seed, sesamum, safflower seed, and nigerseed.
Raw cotton
Raw jute
Copra
De-husked coconut
Sugarcane (Fair and remunerative price)
Virginia flu-cured (VFC) tobacco