Procurement of moong (green gram) by State agencies such as Nafed has begun in Karnataka and Maharasthra, the Centre said on Thursday. Prices of moong have been prevailing below the minimum support price (MSP) level for over a month now, especially in Karnataka, where arrivals have increased in recent days.

“Government agencies have been directed to expand procurement of pulses directly from farmers in all pulses producing States. Procurement of moong by agencies in Karnataka and Maharashtra has already started and will soon be expanded to other States according to arrivals. The agencies have been directed to take up procurement of urad from September 15 and tur also immediate from its arrival,” an official statement said.

Directions in this regard were given by Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha at a meeting held in New Delhi on Thursday to review the prices and availability of essential commodities, especially pulses.

All the ministries and departments concerned have been directed to strengthen the monitoring mechanism to ensure availability of these commodities at reasonable prices during the coming festival season.

Procurement centres

Officials of Nafed, the nodal procurement agency in Karnataka, said procurement centres are being opened up in the districts of Dharwad and Bidar, among others.

About 10 districts, mainly in the northern part of Karnataka, where moong arrivals have picked up, have been identified for initial procurement operations.

In Karnataka, the procurement of moong at MSP will be carried out for 45 days from September 6, an official notification said.

Following the government’s move to incentivise pulses production through a sharp increase in support prices and the high market prices that prevailed during the planting season, farmers across the country have planted pulses such as moong and tur on about 142 lakh hectares — about 33 per cent more than last year. As a result, production is expected to rise to around 20 million tonnes (mt).

Retail prices of pulses had shot up since the early part of this year following a reduced domestic crop, which stood at 17.15 mt in 2015-16 over the previous year on account of consecutive drought. The Centre, besides facilitating imports to ease supplies, has also decided to create a buffer stock of 2 mt as part of its market intervention.

PTI adds: Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said in Kanpur that the country will see bumper pulse production this year, leading to a fall in prices and hoarders will not stand to benefit.

“The country will have bumper production of pulses this year and hoarders will not get anything,” said Paswan. “If hoarders are thinking that they will sell pulses at a higher rate, then forget it. They should sell their stocks in the open market as production will be high.”

Noting that pulse prices have fallen to ₹100 per kg from ₹200, Paswan said hoarding was at work behind the price jump. “States did not take any strong action against hoarders despite our repeated request. As a result, consumers bought pulses at higher rates,” he said.

The Centre is supplying tur to States at ₹66 per kg and urad at ₹83. He called upon States to place demand for pulses from the central stock.

Related Topics