India is set to be the world’s largest producer of lentil (masur) this year on the back of an expected surge in production estimated at about 1.6 million tonnes (mt), Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh said on Friday. Lentil production in Canada, the top player in the global market, is projected at around 1.5 mt and in Australia at 1.4 mt, he said.

Sources in the Agriculture Ministry said the lentil output in 2023-24 may rise to a record. The previous high was in 2017-18, when India had produced 1.62 mt.

“Our lentil production this year, we believe, would be the highest in the world,” Singh said, addressing a Road Show to promote Pulses24 Convention, to be hosted by India. The convention will be jointly organised by Global Pulse Confederation (GPC) and Nafed in Delhi from February 14 to 17.

Hike in MSP

There has been a sharp rise in the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of masur from ₹4,250 per quintal in 2017-18 (crop year) to ₹6,425 per quintal in 2023-24, a rise of over 52 per cent. As India started looking for imports after production dropped in 2018-19 to 1.23 mt (24 per cent) from the previous year, the Government kept increasing MSP every year substantially to motivate farmers towards lentil.

The market price of lentil currently around ₹6,100-6,125, which is below the MSP whereas it was around ₹7,500-8,000 a few months ago.

In the on-going season, lentil acreage was 19.45 lakh hectares (lh) as of January 12, which is 6 per cent more than 18.39 lh in the corresponding period last year.

Lentil production in Canada was initially projected at around 1.67 mt, but it has been scaled down by about 30 per cent, trade sources said. During the recent diplomatic row with Canada, lentil was an important issue since India used to import the crop from there.

Singh further said India is pitching for making the country self-sufficient in pulses by December 2027, but it can’t be ignored that the country needs imports for a while.

Cutting GHG emissions

“In chana, which has more than half of the share in total pulses grown in the country, our production is more than consumption. But in the case of urad and tur, we produce less but consume more, and we also need to keep an eye on the global production trends to fill the gaps,” Singh said.

Addressing the event, Vijay Iyengar, President of Global Pulse Confederation (GPC), said since India is the biggest producer and consumer of pulses, bringing the global stakeholders to India will be to make a connecting link. It is being done after 18 years since GPC started organising this annual event, he said.

Iyengar, also Chairman and Managing Director of Singapore-based Agrocorp International, said pulses contribute a lot to the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as well as providing nitrogen to the soil. The event may help global stakeholders learn the best practices from India while Indian traders and farmers will be able to know the global developments in pulses. He said GPC has already called for doubling pulses consumption by 2028 from the 2023 level. Currently, the global output is about 60 mt.

“We are on the path to self-sufficiency, and as the Home Minister has said, if a farmer grows pulses, he will have a full fertilizer factory in his field due to the inherent benefits of the crop, and we firmly believe in the same,” Nafed Managing Director Ritesh Chauhan said.

Nafed’s additional MD S K Singh said for the first time in India this event is being organised after the cooperative took the initiative to partner with GPC.

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