Skewed incentives as regard rice and wheat have affected land use and cropping pattern with public procurement remaining concentrated in a few States. Currently in most States, the MSP is a purely a notional price as far as farmers are concerned.
This was the case after the oil crisis in the mid-1970s, and during the past decade, in 2002–2004, as can be seen by comparing the estimates made for the output gap in those years and those reconsidered with hindsight.