Why India's shot at self-sufficiency in pulses could boil down to imports

A few weeks back, Home Minister Amit Shah, who is also India’s first co-operation minister, underscored the need for the country to become self-sufficient in pulses to ensure not a single kilogram is imported from January 2028 onwards. He was speaking at an event to launch a portal for pre-registration of farmers for purchase of tur from them directly either at the minimum support price (MSP) or at market rate, whichever is higher.

“Grow pulses, don’t worry about prices,” Shah said. A similar pre-registration for direct sales by farmers will be unveiled shortly for urad and masoor, as well as maize.

This is not India’s first shot at self-sufficiency in pulses.

In the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-2017), the United Progressive Alliance government of the time talked of raising the procurement of oilseeds and pulses to bring them on a par with rice and wheat. Even before that, governments from time to time had devised strategies to bring down the reliance on pulses imports.

The NITI Aayog, too, has devoted time and effort to work out a plan. Multiple committees and panels, including the one under the chairmanship of former Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian, laid down strategies to boost domestic pulses production. Proposals were also mooted to replicate the success of milk and National Dairy Development Board.

Imports are here to stay

That is not to say there has not been progress. 
 

Between 2016 and 2023, the average annual production of all pulses in India rose from 16-18 million tonnes to 22-25 million tonnes. The jump came on the back of several factors, such as robust demand, strong policy initiatives, new seeds, and, most importantly, creation of an annual buffer stock of 2 million tonnes that gave farmers the assurance they could opt for the crop even at the risk of prices dropping.

Senior officials say India’s reliance on pulses import has come down over the years from 4-6 million tonnes annually to just 2.5-3 million tonnes. However, in 2023-24, India is projected to import 3.5 million tonnes, the highest since 2017-18. This, say experts, is indeed the result of low kharif production due to uneven monsoon, but also of a keenness to keep prices under check in an election year.

A demand-supply projection of major agriculture items by the NITI Aayog few years back showed that by 2032-33 India’s pulses consumption would rise to 35.24 million tonnes, but supplies would fall short, at around 33.95 million tonnes. A senior government official, speaking to Business Standard a few weeks ago, said though the production of pulses had grown rapidly in the last decade, the demand had grown faster due to the rising population. This explains the continued imports.

For now, traders and market players also point to likely unabated imports of the three major pulses — urad, tur and masoor — till March 2025 as a roadblock for self-sufficiency efforts.

“This (achieving self-sufficiency in pulses by 2027) is not possible. If you allow free and cheap imports to flood domestic markets, how will farmers be encouraged to grow more pulses or shift towards the crop from other competing crops?” says Suresh Agarwal, president of the All India Dal Mill Association.

As of now, imports are allowed till March next year.

“Masoor imports have been opened and now the crop is coming from Canada and Australia. Free imports will ensure that the big quantities of tur come from Malawi, Sudan, Kenya and Zimbabwe over the next one year while urad will come from Burma. How will self-sufficiency be possible?” Agarwal asks.

Bimal Kothari, chairperson of the Indian Pulses and Grains Association, says of the five major pulses consumed in India, the country is self-sufficient in just chana and moong, to an extent.

“Just one bad crop-year can put all the claims to rest, like in 2023, when one bad monsoon month in August impacted most kharif pulses,” says Kothari.

All pulses are grown in rainfed areas and therefore it is difficult to predict the output.

Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh, in a recent public address, acknowledged that though India was seeking self-sufficiency in pulses it would need imports for a while. He pointed out that the country produced more chana than its consumption, but in the case of urad, tur and moong, the production was less than consumption. “We also need to keep an eye on the global production trends to fill the gaps,” he said.

Need for a safety net

S Mahendra Dev, former director and vice chancellor of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, says a strategy is needed to shift the area under irrigated crops, such as rice and wheat, towards pulses, and also to increase the yields in pulses.
 

“For example, India’s tur yield is less than that of Myanmar,” he says. “Also, procurement has to be robust or farmers will feel the disincentive.”

Highlighting the need for and importance of pulses, Dev says India’s protein requirement in rural as well as urban areas is around 450 gm per person per day, while the actual intake is just 195 gm per person per day in rural and 250 gm per person per day in urban.

To provide a safety net to oilseeds and pulses farmers, since 2018 the central government has been running the Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay Sanrakshan Abhiyan (PM-AASHA), which offers a Price Support Scheme (PSS) for pulses, oilseeds, copra, etc., a Price Deficiency Payment Scheme (PDPS) for oilseeds, and a pilot of Private Procurement and Stockist Scheme (PPSS) for oilseeds.

PM-AASHA has worked and is one of the reasons why pulses buffer stocks have risen from just a few hundred thousand tonnes to nearly 2 million tonnes in a span of a few years. However, the Commission for Agriculture Costs and Prices (CACP) has repeatedly said that of its three components, the PSS is functioning efficiently, but the other two not so well.

“The Commission strongly recommends that PDPS and PPSS can be strengthened in addressing the procurement issues of oilseeds and pulses as physical procurement of these crops is not feasible due to the absence of procurement and market infrastructure unlike that of wheat and paddy,” the Commission said in a report.

The CACP, in one of its findings, said disposal or liquidation of stocks of pulses procured under PSS had been a challenge as the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India incurs heavy losses in the open market and sale of stocks in the market depresses prices and sentiments. There are other difficulties in arranging storage near procurement centres and disposal within nine months when a huge procurement is made.

The Arvind Subramanian committee had made several recommendations, including on creating a buffer stock and raising MSPs, which are already being implemented. But, experts say, its recommendations on price management policies, which talk of eliminating export bans and encouraging development of new seed technologies, perhaps need another look.