Experience of new initiatives and minimum support price in agriculture sector of Rajasthan

Large part of Rajasthan's population depends on agriculture for livelihood, therefore, development of this sector is of utmost importance to the state government. The government has taken several initiatives to improve the condition of the sector. Some of the initiatives include Gold Rays Project, Weather Based Crop Insurance, among others. The government also offers the Minimum Support Price to the farmers to protect them from the losses they face from erratic monsoon conditions. Keeping the importance of agriculture sector in mind, the government has also indulged in some agro marketing strategy. It has come out with the APMC Act, Rajasthan being one of the states to have implemented it. Other strategies are direct marketing and contract farming. The paper also shows a comparison between Rajasthan and other states in providing basic infrastructure facilities to farmers and the sector.