NEW DELHI (Commoditiescontrol) – Gone are the days when tur and urad dals were priced nearly Rs. 200/100kg due to acute shortage of domestic crop last year. Thanks to improvement in monsoon rains that raised prospects for bumper crop of urad, moong and tur this year in the kharif season resulting in a down trend in prices of almost all pulse seeds, except chana, which has spiraled amid mismatch in supply-demand.
Prices of urad and moong have already dropped below Minimum Support Price (MSP) level of Rs 5,050 (including bonus of Rs 425) fixed by central government. However, government is all set to ensure the farmers get reasonable prices of their produce as Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said on Thursday that the government would procure pulses at MSP from farmers if market rates fall below it.
Desi tur and urad (as per quality) were last priced at Rs 4,000-4,600/100kg and Rs 4,000-6,200 in Akola, while moong traded at Rs 4,400 in Jaipur market of Rajasthan.
The Agriculture Minister was addressing the closing ceremony of International Pulse Year in Agra.
It should be recalled that United Nations is observing the year 2016 as International Pulses Year to make the common people aware of the nutritional properties in pulses.
“The Government has made provision to ascertain the sale of pulses on support price for the farmers. Under this provision, wherever the market price of the pulses falls below the support price, the government of India ascertain support price for the farmers,” said the Minister.
Mr. Bimal Kothari, Vice Chairman, India Pulses and Grain Association (IPGA) has to say that it will help to limit the fall in the prices of pulses if government procurement agencies actively procure new harvest at MSP, but much support is not expected as crop size of pulses has increased sizably so pressure will be mounting on prices in 2017.
India is the largest producer as well as consumer of pulses. Since, prices are down in Indian market, so bearish market is also observed in the other major pulse producing countries that supply their crop to India, he said.
India's imports were around 57.97 lakh tonnes of pulses in 2015-16 (Apr-Mar) and the country has sourced 27.48 lakh tonnes up to October during the current financial year. The experts believe pulses import may fall to 50 lakh tonnes in 2016-17.
According to Kothari, the health of rabi crops is also reported good with high acreage so production will increase considerably if weather condition remains favorable till harvest as chana crop is expected to arrive by the end of January in Karnataka followed by Maharashtra and it will hit the markets of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh afterward in February. With rise in arrivals prices of chana will also come down, he added.
Kothari said, consumption demand of pulses will increase in the crop year 2016-17 (July-June) as its share in food basket be comparative up due to low prices. He anticipated consumption demand to remain around 250 lakh tonnes.
The government has aimed to grow 207.5 lakh tonnes of pulses in 2016-17 against 164.7 lakh tonnes in the corresponding last year. The production target of pulses is 210 lakh tonne for year 2017-18 and 240 lakh tonne for year 2020-21.
The government has also decided to maintain a buffer stock of pulses to the extent of 20 lakh tonne in a move to keep prices under check and provide reasonable prices of the crop to the farmer.
(By Commoditiescontrol Bureau; +91-22-40015533)
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