Government agencies have set up 200 centres to procure pulses from farmers at the minimum support price (MSP) and will add more centres after arrival of tur dal from next month onwards.
An inter-ministerial meeting was held here today under the chairmanship of Consumer Affairs Secretary Hem Pande to review prices and availability of pulses.
"In the meeting, it was informed that government agencies -- NAFED, FCI and SFAC -- have started aggressive procurement operations to ensure minimum support prices to farmers after the arrival of crop in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan," an official statement said.
The meeting was informed that after the intervention of government agencies through direct procurement at MSP, farmers are getting better prices for their produce in the market.
"So far, 200 centres have been set up in pulses producing states and more centres will be added after arrival of tur crop in October-November," the statement said.
Pande directed the procurement agencies to ensure that farmers get minimum support prices for pulses and wide publicity should be given to the procurement operations in pulses procuring pockets.
Production of pulses is estimated to rise 57 per cent to a record 8.7 million tonnes in the kharif season this year from 5.54 million tonnes in the previous season.
The government has decided to create a 2 million tonnes of buffer stock of pulses through domestic procurement and imports for making market intervention in case of price rise.
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