)
Amid fears of farmers shifting to better remunerative crops such as cotton and sugarcane, pulses traders have urged the government to incorporate the legume in the Food Security Bill for its distribution through the Public Distribution System (PDS).
Pulses have been sustainably traded up to Rs 1,000 per quintal lower than their minimum support price (MSP) announced by the government a couple of months ago. Against the MSP of Rs 4,300 a quintal, tur is selling at Rs 3,850 a quintal in the Vashi agricultural produce market committee. Similarly, urad and chana are quoted lower in the physical market well below the MSP. Pulses prices remained lower for the last six months with marginal fluctuations of two-five per cent.
“Moong and lentil are quoted higher from their respective MSP levels because of fundamentals. While lean season is going on for moon now, supply deficit of lentil supports its prices,” said Himat Chandra, partner, Trimurthi International, a Vashi-based pulses trader and exporter.
The new season moong crop is set to hit the mandis in 15-20 days. Then its price would start cooling off, he added.
Meanwhile, data compiled by the ministry of agriculture showed pulses acreage shot up over 26 per cent to 7.95 million hectares (ha) until August 2, 2013 this season, compared with 6.3 million ha on the same day last year.
“Pulses in India is grown in small and marginal land with less irrigation needed. While in Punjab and other states in the region, farmers should sow pulses every after two cereal crops to protect depleting water table, other states should also dedicate main agriculture land to the legume to increase overall output and reduce import dependence,” said Pravin Dongre, chief executive officer of Glencore, a multinational grain procurement and export company.
Dongre who is also the president of the India Pulses and Grains Association, said mega processing mills had come up in exporting countries like Tanzania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Australia and Dubai to supply processed pulses to India. Consequently, threat looms large for Indian pulses processing units (dal mills) for lowering their operating capacity. Currently, India imports around 3.5 million tonnes (mt) of pulses in shell (raw) for processing locally to meet its annual consumption of 23 mt. Annual production from domestic sources is estimated at around 19.5 mt.
Otherwise, farmers would shift to cotton and sugarcane for higher realisation resulting in lower production from domestic sources and proportionate increase in imports, he added.
The MSP announced by the government has just remained on paper as no agency commenced procurement at the MSP. Dongre urged the government to create a buffer stock of at least 1 mt to support the price a bit which ultimately will keep farmers’ sowing interest intact.
Chandra said that government’s steps had been very discouraging. The Rajasthan government has kept the stock limit of 100 tonnes despite spot chana price hovering at Rs 2,600 a quintal against its MSP of Rs 3,000 a quintal for reasons unjustified.
