Editor's Pick: A well-timed announcement?

(The Editor's Pick is a new newsletter from The Hindu that provides a snapshot of the most important stories from today's edition of our newspaper, along with a note from our top editors on why we chose to give prominence to these stories.)

The Minimum Support Prices for six crops, including wheat, have been hiked by the government. Unusually, the announcement comes just a year after a previous hike, and a month ahead of the usual time for the announcement.

The hike also coincides with the Parliament passing a controversial Bill which has been criticised over fears of phasing out public procurement and MSP.

Farmers groups are protesting across the country against the Bill, particularly in Punjab and Haryana, India's wheat growing hubs. The 2.6% hike in the MSP for procuring wheat takes the return for farmers to over double of cost. MSP is pegged at a minimum of one and half times cost.

The government, right from the PM, has been at pains to state that the MSP regime will remain in force, even as the new Bill facilitates private trade. A major demand from farmers' groups is that MSP should be made the base price for private procurement under the new Bill.

However, government procurement under MSP has been quite low now. Without a legal mandate on the private traders to follow MSP, the government price may not influence the market price. This scenario, along with the politically-sensitive timing of the announcement, is what makes this story important.