Terming the Union Budget as progressive, the Indian Pulses and Grains Association, the apex trade body for the sector, has called for enhancing the production and procurement of pulses to meet the rising demand.

Bimal Kothari, Vice Chairman, IPGA, in a statement, said the Finance Minister had announced various steps particularly focusing on technology in agriculture, which is a very progressive move.

Crops like pulses and edible oil seeds require special attention because India has been importing them. Though the production of pulses has been given a boost, still, we are importing about 2.5 million tons of pulses annually, Kothari said.

“Also, the demand for pulses is increasing by one million tonne annually. So by 2030 India’s demand will be around 30 to 33 million tons of pulses. Therefore, we need to enhance the production and not just focus on increasing the minimum support price (MSP) every time as its going to hurt the consumers in the long run. Our Prime Minister’s vision to double farmers’ income can be attained by increasing productivity. As of now our productivity is really low in comparison to international levels,” Kothari said. The finance minister’s announcement to use Kisan drones to map the production is a very good step. This will allow us to estimate the production and understand the crop losses accurately, Kothari said. It will also be beneficial in the spraying of insecticides.

“Not just the farmers but even the government will benefit from this drone scheme. Many times we are unable to get accurate numbers of production, whereas government policies are totally dependent and designed based on these numbers. Getting the most accurate numbers related to productions and losses will immensely benefit government, trading associations and farmers,” Kothari said

The measures announced for start-ups in the budget will encourage agri-tech, although this is at a very initial stage as there is still a lot that needs to be done. “The contribution of farming sector in GDP is very less hence we need to bring in more value addition. This will happen only if we stop relying on sales of raw materials and use these raw materials to sell value added products,” Kothari said.

Further, in the pulses sector, a lot of development is being done in the western world in terms of alternative protein or plant-based meat, which is now being introduced in India. “Therefore, if advanced technologies are brought and set up in India it will not only help the trade and industries but it will also help the farmers immensely,” the IPGA vice-chairman observed.

Also, the finance minister has earmarked ₹2,37,000 crore for procurement of various crops at MSP. The government is doing many programs for wheat and rice, which has been going on for decades, but now more focus is required on oil seeds and pulses. “In pulses sector there has been significant procurement in last three to four years, but this needs to be enhanced more and buffer stocks need to be created as its being done in case of wheat and paddy, so that government can do market intervention to control the prices when the production gets affected due to unavoidable events. This is more important in the pulses sector because pulses production of other origin is much less than our requirements/shortfalls,” Kothari said

Therefore, if India faces any shortage of pulses, it won’t be possible to make it up through international markets. Also, this buffer stock needs to be liquidated from time to time through the public distribution system to tackle the issue of malnutrition in the country. Since India has the largest population of vegetarians, pulses become a vital source of protein to overcome the problem of malnutrition, Kothari said.

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