Here's what govt is doing to curb price rise in pulses

The sky-rocketing price of pulses has been a pain point for the common man and government for sometime now. Thanks to the dismal monsoon season for the last two years, insufficient supply in the wholesale markets has set pulses price to cross Rs 300 per kg soon.

In fact, for the past few months, retail inflation has also been on the uptick thanks to inflation in food items led by pulses and vegetables.

To correct this, the government has taken several steps to boost pulses production. 

This includes encouraging farmers to sow more pulses by ensuring remunerative prices and hiking the minimum support price (MSP) of pulses over the years, Minister of State for agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Sudarshan Bhagat said in the Rajya Sabha.

“To incentivise cultivation of pulses in the country, over and above the MSPs, during 2016-17, the Government has also announced a bonus of Rs 425 per quintal for Kharif pulses, namely Arhar (Tur), Urad and Moong,” Bhagat said.

This has resulted in an increase in the sowing of pulses. According to data received from various states, acreage under kharif crop cultivation has improved to 692.98 lakh hectres so far this year, from 671.01 lakh hectres under kharif crop cultivation last year. Out of this, pulses cultivation was at 90.17 lakh hectres as on July 22, 2016, compared to 64.69 lakh hectres in 2015.

Apart from this, the government has also set up a group of officers from various enforcement agencies to monitor and exchange of information on hoarding and cartelisation regularly, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, C R Chaudhary, said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.

“The prices of pulses inter alia are also influenced by hoarding and black-marketing. The regular monitoring and coordinated action of the Government helps moderate the prices through disincentivising such hoarding/black-marketing,” he said.

The government has seized a total of 1.38 lakh metric tonne (MT) of pulses through 14,612 raids conducted between October 2015 and July 19, 2016.

The government has also been extending the reach of the National Food Security Mission – Pulses, to 638 districts across 29 states. Under this, financial assistance is provided to farmers by undertaking several initiatives. These include, distribution of quality seeds, machinery & implements, providing improved technology, and more.

These are the new initiatives taken up for increasing production and productivity of pulses in 2016-17 

• 93 Seed Hubs have been created through Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), State Agricultural Universities and Krishi Vigyan Kendras for ensuring the availability of new variety seeds.

• 15% of the allocation of pulses under NFSM is earmarked for production of quality seeds through State Government.

• To increase the availability of breeder seed of pulses, ICAR Institute and State Agricultural universities have been supported.