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UPSC Prelims 2004 · Agriculture · Farm Money
Consider the following statements: Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- Regarding the procurement of food grains, Government of India follows a procurement target rather than an open-ended procurement policy.
- Government of India announces minimum support prices only for cereals.
- For distribution under Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), wheat and rice are issued by the Government of India at uniform Central issue prices to the States/Union Territories.
- (a) 1 and 2
- (b) 2 only
- (c) 1 and 3
- (d) 3 only
Show the answer and explanation
Answer: (d) 3 only
Only the uniform Central Issue Price is right.
Statement by statement
1. ✗ WRONG Procurement is open-ended at MSP — whatever farmers bring is bought.
2. ✗ WRONG MSP covers pulses, oilseeds and commercial crops too, not only cereals.
3. ✓ CORRECT Wheat and rice are issued to States at uniform Central Issue Prices.
Why the others are wrong
(a) Accepts targets and cereals-only MSP.
(b) Accepts cereals-only MSP.
(c) Accepts procurement targets.
The trap
Statement 1 sounds disciplined, but India’s procurement is open-ended.
🔒 Open-ended procurement at MSP; CIP uniform; NFSA 2013 → free grains (PMGKAY) from 2023.