Excess Supply of Pulses

What is the issue?

• The country witnesses an excess supply of pulses due to higher production.
• The Centre must appropriately focus on demand side management and procurement, to deal with this.

How is the pulses market?

• Two successively large harvests, large inventories and weak offtake in the market have resulted in excess pulses supply.
• This has naturally kept the pulses prices low.
• Government's policy interventions have had little impact on farm-gate prices.
• Without exception, prices of all major pulses are well below the specified minimum support price.
• Restrictions imposed on imports have failed to exert any meaningful impact on the domestic market.
• These include the quantitative ceiling and customs duties.
• Pulse growers continue to suffer low prices for the second year in a row.
• This is sure to impact planting intentions for the upcoming kharif crop.

How to deal with it?

• Demand - ‘Self-sufficiency’ in pulses could be advantageous only if the demand side is dealt appropriately.
• Gains of the last two years have to be responded with demand side management.
• But policy-makers have made a series of interventions to simply control supplies.
• This was done in the hope that prices would rise closer to MSP, but this has not worked.
• Boost consumption - India suffers pervasive under-nutrition and serious protein deficiency among large sections.
• Excess protein-rich pulse production could be utilised to boost its consumption.
• Legume could be included in the Public Distribution System or under National Food Security Act.
• Supply of even one kilogram of pulses per family per month will go a long way in advancing nutrition security.
• Centre's role - Relying on State governments’ choice to advance nutrition security is less likely to result in tangible outcomes.
• Calorie and protein security should go together.
• This responsibility must largely be assumed by the Centre.
• Burdensome inventory with various stakeholders (growers, government, traders) must be reduced.
• Government agencies themselves are reportedly holding well over a million tonnes of pulses incurring huge carrying costs.
• These need to be liquidated.
• Procurement - There is lack of political will to address the pulses crisis comprehensively.
• Given the present concerns, procurement of pulses deserves to be strengthened.
• Handling a few million tonnes of pulses should not be a formidable challenge.
• There is a risk that pulses planted acreage and production may decline in the upcoming kharif season.
• Growers are likely to shift from pulses to more remunerative crops.
• Appropriate demand-side management and procurement policies would only prevent this.

Source: BusinessLine