At Belpukur village, about 130 km north of Kolkata in Nadia district, farmers are moving away from pulses, despite the high prices that they are fetching in the market.
Nadia district of Bengal has been identified as a pulse-growing district under the National Food Security Mission.
“This year, I may not grow pulses as they are not profitable enough. Much of the crop gets wasted because of the soil condition and bad weather here. It is better to grow paddy and jute, which are more suited to the weather condition here and thus give higher yields,” says 65-year-old Kanai Ghosh, a local farmer.
Kanai, who has about eight bighas of land in the village, has been farming for over half a century. He is one of the farmers in Belpukur who have made up their mind to give up pulses farming.
On five to six bighas, Kanai grows different varieties of paddy such as aus, aman and nayanmoni all through the year. On the rest of his land, he grows jute or pat and seasonal vegetables. Most of the land in the village is now under rice and jute cultivation.
“Farming of pulses has decreased considerably in the village because of low yield. Weather and soil conditions do not support pulses, and we cannot grow the crop all through the year. Pulses such as urad, musur and moong are grown here since they take only three to four months to mature. We sow them in October-November and harvest in January,” he said.
Kanai grew moong dal on two bighas last year. He produced 100 kg of dal and earned Rs 5,000. “On the same land, if I had cultivated rice, that would have produced at least 960 kg, fetching me Rs 10,560. This year, I am planning to give up pulses cultivation as it entails high investment and low profitability compared to paddy,” he said.
“While 10 cottah of land can roughly produce 60-80 kg of pulses in a good harvest season, the same land can produce about 400 kg of rice,” observed Kanai.
“If we take into account the cost of labour, water pump, fertilisers and seeds, we may just have to quit agriculture. Farmers thus prefer to cultivate crops which have higher productivity, low gestation period and give high returns,” said Nibas Ghosh, another farmer from the village.
While paddy can assure a profit of at least Rs 2,000 per bigha, pulses in a good harvest season can fetch only about Rs 500 per bigha.
Nibas has six bighas of land, most of which is under paddy and the rest under jute cultivation. He too plans to drop pulses this year.
Another farmer in the village, Hashan Ali Mondol has also stopped pulses cultivation. “There is not much profit in cultivating pulses and the soil and weather conditions here are also not favourable for the crop,” said Mondol, who cultivated pulses last in 2007.
That year, he grew moong over 10 cottahs of land and got an output of 300 kg. “If I had grown rice on the same land, it would have produced a minimum of 250-300 sacks (one sack-60 kg) of rice,” said Mondol.
