Coastal Andhra ryots shift priority to pulses

Farmers in the Krishna, Guntur and Prakasam districts of coastal Andhra Pradesh seem to have given up their dependence on waters from the Nagarjuna Sagar.

Most farmers have shifted from the cultivation of paddy to the cultivation of commercial crops and the result is that almost every farmer is now into growing pulses.

Pulses require very little water supply and the cost of cultivation is nominal. Consequently, the production of red gram (toor dal), black gram, bengal gram and green gram (moong dal) have substantially gone up during 2003-04.

Andhra Pradesh now supplies red gram to Orissa, West Bengal and Assam, and farmers from the Krishna and Guntur districts dominate the black gram market at the national level.

Red gram has become a major crop for farmers under the Krishna delta. Its harvest increased 300 per cent during 2003-04. Farmers of Krishna, Guntur and Prakasam districts, along with their Telangana counterparts, ensured that production went up from 6 lakh bags to 18 lakh bags.

The crop fetches anywhere between Rs 1,700 and Rs 1,900 per quintal. With Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh recording poor red gram yields, the Andhra farmers and traders have become busy transporting it to other states.

Black gram from Andhra Pradesh now reaches every important market in the country. The crop from Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Rajam, Amudalavalasa and Rajahmundry hit the market in January.

Then in February and March, black gram arrived from Krishna and Guntur districts and it has been transported to all the national markets.

This crop holds sway over the price and supply aspect. About 20 lakh bags of black gram arrived during 2003-04. The two varieties of black gram, husked one (chilka dal) and the washed one (udad dal), have great demand all over the country. More of washed black gram is exported to Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Pondicherry.

Until three years ago, the state used to buy about 350 tonnes of bengal gram from Delhi, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh every year. Now these imports have come down by 50 per cent.

The farmers of Guntur and Prakasam district meet the demand for the bengal gram. They harvested 30 lakh bags of the bengal gram during 2003-04. Half of the crop has been exported to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

The other half is distributed in local markets, as black gram finds utility in every food preparation. The ordinary quality of bengal gram fetches farmers Rs 1,800 per quintal and the 'Bombay' variety Rs 2,000 per quintal.

About 4.5 lakh bags of green gram have been sold and markets are waiting for the fresh crop from Addanki and Podili in Prakasam district, Vinukonda and Narasaraopet in Guntur district and Madhira, Nakarikal, Suryapet and Khammam in Khammam district.

Farmers earned Rs 1,500 per quintal of green gram. The dal is in great demand at Jatni, Cuttack, Khargapur, Kolkata, Siluguri, Guwahati, Bangalore and Chennai markets. If the crop produced is not enough, traders import green dal from Maharashtra.

Bhagwati Prasad Agarwal of Giridharilal and Sons, a leading commission agent in dals, told Business Standard that if the government sealed borders and checked unauthorised business, the government could double its taxes from the present Rs 350 crore.

If the government cut down taxes on dals from four per cent to two per cent, the measure would not only increase its revenue, but also check corruption at the checkposts.