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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | From Plate to Plough: A finger on the pulses -Ashok Gulati

From Plate to Plough: A finger on the pulses -Ashok Gulati

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published Published on Mar 15, 2017   modified Modified on Mar 15, 2017
-The Indian Express

Government must give a level playing field by removing restrictions on markets and exports

Last year, roughly at this time, the price of tur dal (split pigeon pea) in the retail market was hovering around Rs 180/kg. The prices of other pulses were not far behind. They were all spiralling due to back-to-back droughts during 2014-15 and 2015-16. Production of all pulses had plunged to 16.5 million metric tonnes (MMT), and imports shot up to 5.8 MMT. The rising demand for imports from India also put international prices under pressure, especially for chickpeas from Australia. This caused hardships to poor consumers at home as dal was slipping away from their “dal-bhaat” or “dal-roti”, a survival food-kit of the poor. There were heightened concerns at the policy level to find ways and means to augment pulses supplies in general and tur in particular.

A long-term agreement was signed with Mozambique for the import of pulses. In fire-fighting mode to douse the flames of high inflation, the Government of India set up a committee under the chief economic advisor to solve this problem of pulses. It was important to have a fresh look at the pulses sector as over the last 25 years, policy had failed miserably to achieve self-sufficiency in pulses. So, it was clear that business as usual will not deliver.

One of the key findings of the committee was if farmers have to be incentivised to grow more pulses, and on a larger irrigated area, they must receive a sufficient profit from growing pulses. Given the levels of technology, it was realised that if farmers get about Rs 7,000/quintal for their produce, then pulses can compete with other crops. The ongoing minimum support prices (MSP) of kharif pulses hovered between Rs 4,625/quintal for tur and urad (black gram) to Rs 4,850/quintal for moong (green gram). Giving a massive jump from these levels to Rs 7,000/quintal in one go was considered politically difficult. So, it was thought it would be done over two years. But when the MSP for 2016-17 crops was announced, it was just Rs 5,050/quintal (including bonus) for tur and urad, and Rs 5,225/quintal for moong — far below their market prices.

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The Indian Express, 15 March, 2017, http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/from-plate-to-plough-a-finger-on-the-pulses-narendra-modi-central-government-market-policy-4569167/


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