Jalandhar, Oct. 3 -- Even as the central government has approved the highest ever increase of Rs.160 per quintal in wheat's minimum support price (MSP), the Punjab farmer unions have termed it as mere peanuts at a time when the state's agricultural sector is faced with a crisis, especially after the floods ravaged the paddy crop. They said the MSP should be based on the Swaminathan commission's recommendations. On Wednesday, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) announced revised MSPs for winter-sown (rabi) crops for the 2025-26 marketing year under which the wheat MSP has been revised from Rs.2,425 to Rs.2,585 (a hike of 6.59%). The committee has also mentioned Rs.1,239 as the expected cost of wheat production per quintal than last year's Rs.1,182. Effecting an increase of Rs.250, the MSP for mustard has also been hiked from Rs.5,950 to Rs.6,200 with Rs.3,210 as the expected cost of production. Punjab farmers grow mainly two major crops - wheat and mustard - in the rabi season from October after harvesting paddy. In the recent floods, Punjab farmers suffered huge losses after paddy on 4.94 lakh acres got damaged across the state. Manjit Singh Rai, general secretary of Bharatiya Kisan Union (Doaba), said farmers were expecting incentives through the fresh MSP rates for wheat crop. "The cost of wheat production has increased manifold in flood-hit areas due to accumulation of sand and silt but the central government failed to take a serious note of it even after senior central ministers and PM Narendra Modi toured the state to assess flood losses," Rai said, adding that the fresh hike in wheat does not account for the actual cost of production. BKU (Dakanda) state general secretary Jagmohan Singh said, "The actual cost of wheat production is much higher than the expected cost mentioned by the committee as the prices of labour, diesel, pesticides and fertilisers have gone up in the past one year. The Centre must ensure that other rabi crops, including mustard, lentils, barley and grams, must be procured on MSP as mentioned by the CCEA."...