The Union Government announced minimum support prices (MSP) for 17 agricultural commodities (14 kharif crops) on July 4, 2018. The announcement came in the backdrop of the assurance provided by the Prime Minister to sugarcane farmers that the Government is going to provide MSP for kharif crops at one and half times of production cost. However, a closer look at the MSP reveals that for no crop was MSP more than 50 per cent of production cost.