K'taka harvests bumper red gram crop

The prices of red gram (tur dal) are moving northwards in Karnataka this year. Despite a bumper crop in the state, thanks to good monsoon and the absence of pest attacks in the major growing areas of the state, the commodity has fetched attractive prices in the market this year.

This has resulted in the diversion of the produce by farmers from the procurement centres set up by the Red Gram Development Board (RGDB) to private dealers in both Karnataka and neighbouring Maharashtra.

The traders and dal millers in Maharashtra have been purchasing the commodity in big quantities directly from the farmers paying at least Rs 100 more per quintal than the rates prevailing in Gulbarga and Bidar, the major production centres in the state, RGDB officials said.

Initially there was a lack of interest among farmers in selling their produce at the procurement centres established by the RGDB. These centres which had fixed the minimum support price (MSP) at Rs 1,750 per quintal for grade-I and Rs 1,700 per quintal for grade-II, higher than those prevailing in the open market at Rs 1,470 - 1,600, end of 2005.

However, the rates picked up gradually in the open market and are presently ruling between 1,765 per quintal and Rs 1,890 per quintal in Karnataka and up to Rs 2,000 in Maharashtra, RGDB managing director Kamat told Business Standard.

As against the MSP of Rs 1,700 fixed by the government, the red gram prices are presently ruling at Rs 1,800 per quintal for the red variety and Rs 1,775 for the white variety in Gulbarga market. The commodity is sold at Rs 1,765 per quintal in Sedam (Gulbarga district), Rs 1,681 (red variety) and Rs 1,889 (white variety) in Yadagiri (Gulbarga), while in Bidar it was sold at Rs 1,765 and Rs 1,780 per quintal in Bhalki (Bidar district) on Saturday.

Last year, the commodity was sold for prices ranging from Rs 1,500 to Rs 1,600 per quintal in the wholesale market, while the RGDB had fixed the price at Rs 1,690 per quintal.

However, there was no procurement in two centres in Magaon of Gulbarga district and Hulsur of Bidar district as the farmers there preferred private dealers, RGDB's manager, operations, Alahalli Basavalingappa said.

The state government's efforts to set up 25 procurement centres through RGDB to arrest the decline in the prices of red gram early this year have yielded the desired results. It has led to a diversion of the crop from RGDB to private dealers and millers in Maharashtra, the officials said.

Basavalingappa said that the board, as of March 18, utilised Rs 10.56 crore of Rs 15 crore released by the government from the revolving fund to procure 62,159 quintal of red gram in the state.

Last year, the RGDB procured 64,075 quintal of red gram both from Gulbarga and Bidar districts.

However, the board is unlikely to meet its target of procuring 1 lakh quintal this year as the growers have already stopped selling their produce to the board, he said.

The dal millers from Latur in Maharashtra are making heavy purchases from the state paying at least Rs 50 to Rs 100 more per quintal than the prices prevailing in the state.

At the start of the season, red gram was sold in the wholesale market around Rs 20,000 a tonne. But once fresh stocks started arriving, the prices fell to between Rs 14,700 and Rs 16,000 a tonne at APMCs in Gulbarga and Bidar districts. Following pressure from red gram growers, the government agreed to intervene in the market and opened its procurement centres on January 19 this year.

Bidar and Gulbarga districts contribute over 60 per cent of the state's red gram production. This year, the area under cultivation of red gram has gone up from 3.03 lakh hectares to 3.56 lakh hectares in Gulbarga district, while Bidar increased the area from 51,439 hectares to 57,570 hectares.

According to initial estimates this year's red gram production is expected to touch 25 lakh tonnes in these two districts.