Pulses need more than price support

One of the key debates going around the country’s agricultural front today is the upswing in the prices of pulses. The retail prices of almost all the varieties of pulses have reportedly crossed ₹100 per kg in metropolitan cities.

To keep the domestic prices of pulses under check, the government has hiked the minimum support price (MSP) of some varieties up to ₹275/quintal over the last year’s prices.

The government has also decided to import large quantities of pulses. The Centre has also asked State governments to take action against speculative hoarders. Despite such measures, the prices of pulses refuse to stabilise.

Analysts point out that the supply-demand mismatch of pulses as a result of seasonal disturbances is the prime reason for such a price rise. Untimely rains in the major growing regions of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh have reportedly resulted in huge crop loss.

If the vagaries of monsoon are to be held responsible for a shortfall in supply of pulses, why does the problem surface even during a good monsoon? Is meeting domestic shortfalls in pulses through imports necessarily an economical option?

India is the largest producer of pulses in the world with a share of about 22 per cent. Pulses are cultivated across the country largely under rainfed conditions. Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Andhra are considered to be the major pulses producing States.

The cultivated area, production and yield of pulses in the country have not been encouraging even after the introduction of Green Revolution during the 1960s. For instance, the pulses production remained almost stagnant at between 13 and 14 million tonnes from 1975-76 to 2009-10, although a slight improvement is observed during the last three-four years.

The area under pulses is almost the same today as it was during 1964-65 (around 23 million hectares).

Considering the fast decline in per capita availability of pulses from 61 gram per day in 1950-51 to 42 gram in 2012-13, the governments at the Central and States have been taking efforts towards boosting the pulses production through various programmes.

During 2007-08, the Centre has initiated the Accelerated Pulses Production Programme; significant emphasis has also been given on increasing pulses production under the National Food Security Mission (NFSM). But despite these efforts, there has been no dramatic increase in area, production and yield of pulses.

How will a higher MSP encourage farmers to shift more acreage towards pulses when unlike paddy and wheat it is not covered by procurement mechanism of the Food Corporation of India (FCI)?

MSP of most pulses crops have been increased substantially as compared to crops like paddy and wheat between 2000-01 and 2014-15. In the case of tur, MSP per quintal increased from ₹1,200 to ₹4,625, while the same increased from ₹1,200 to ₹4,850 for moong and ₹1,200 to ₹4,625 for urad. Many field level studies point out that low yields and poor marketing arrangements are the major impediments for the production of pulses.

Unlike wheat and paddy which saw a huge increase in productivity due to technology advances during the Green Revolution period, no such intensive R&D initiatives were directed towards pulses. Besides, pulses crops have increasingly become marginal crops grown largely on under less fertile lands which have further hit yields.

The time has come now to calibrate R&D efforts towards developing better crop and seed varieties in pulses that can enhance the yield.

Poor procurement not only leads to distress sale but also discourages farmers from cultivating pulse crops. Similar to paddy and wheat, an assured market with better procurement facilities, and warehouses with market information system need to be brought in order to safeguard the interests of pulses farmers.

The irrigation coverage under pulse crops is very limited (only 16 per cent of 24 million hectares in 2011-12) and therefore, per hectare yield is also very low in India.

While making effort to increase the irrigation coverage for pulses, varieties that can withstand under-irrigated conditions need to be developed.

As rightly pointed out by the Expert Group on Pulses (2009), transgenic varieties in pulses need to be introduced which can assure the farmers a higher crop yield with lesser dependence on insecticides.

The Prime Minister has urged the farmers to grow more pulses in order to avoid imports and become self-sufficient in pulses production. This can be realised if all these long-term measures are adopted on a war-footing level.

Narayanamoorthy is Head, Department of Economics and Rural Development, Alagappa University. Alli is Assistant Professor, Social Sciences Division, Vellore Institute of Technology