Prices of tur (arhar) continue to rule below the minimum support price level of ₹5,050 per quintal in many markets across the key growing States of Maharashtra and Karnataka.

This is despite the fact that the government procurement of tur has exceeded eight lakh tonnes as of April 15, accounting for about a fifth of the estimated all-time high output of 4.23 million tonnes.

Responding to growers’ demands, the Centre has extended procurement till April 22.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the extension of the procurement deadline at Bajipura in Gujarat, and said it would benefit farmers whose crops are still being harvested.

However, growers, who are still holding huge stocks, feel that the extension period was inadequate and demanded that the government keep open the procurement window till the end of the harvesting season in May. “The Centre should extend the procurement at least till the end of May. Otherwise growers will continue to face problems,” said Basavaraj Ingin, President of the Karnataka Tur Growers Association in Gulbarga.

Meanwhile, in a bid to accelerate procurement, NAFED, the main procurement agency, will directly procure from farmers across the country. “Farmers’ documents will be verified and the crop will be bought without any APMC intermediary. The process will be facilitated by the State farmers’ co-operative bodies,” said Sanjeev Kumar Chadda, Managing Director, NAFED.

To arrest the rising consumer prices over the last two years and boost supplies, the government had incentivised the production of pulses through higher MSP and bonus. The Centre is creating a buffer stock of two million tonnes of pulses to stabilise consumer prices. Responding to price signals, farmers had brought a record area under the pulses crop in 2016-17, resulting in an estimated record total output of 22.14 million tonnes.

The all-time high purchases of tur by government agencies ( see table ) should have lent some stability to prices. But that has not happened in the case of pulses this year.

TN Prakash Kammaradi, Chairman of the Karnataka Agriculture Prices Commission, said it was surprising that prices of tur have not stabilised despite the procurement.

‘Govt losing opportunity’ “The Centre is losing an opportunity to strengthen the pulses production system by not extending the deadline by at least a month till end May,” Kammaradi said, while expressing fears that farmers could shift to other crops such as cotton and maize in the kharif cropping season starting June.

Farmers’ leader and Member of Parliament from Maharashtra, Raju Shetti, told BusinessLine that traders have been playing on the prices of tur in the market. In some places, it has been found that traders are buying the produce below the MSP and selling it to NAFED at the MSP. His party’s workers have been carrying out surprise checks at the procurement centres, he added.

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