NEW DELHI: Concerned about rising prices of pulses in an election year, the government is mounting pressure on stockists, millers, food processors and traders to declare their stocks of pigeon pea (tur/arhar) and black gram so that the government takes the right decision.
In Bihar, for example, tur prices have increased nearly 89% to Rs 14,500 a quintal as of April this year from Rs 7681.36/ quintal the same month last year. Senior officers of the Department of Consumer Affairs (DoCA) have already visited 12 centres of pulses-producing regions. Imports of pulses have also been continuing from Africa and Myanmar.
According to trade analysts, India has imported 8.75 lakh tonne (LT) of tur and 5.12 LT of black gram by March 23.
“We are knocking on the doors of every possible small-to-midlevel trader to make them feel that they are under the government radar,” said a senior officer of the DoCA who recently visited Latur mandi in Maharashtra, one of the largest tur markets.
“The government needs to know the stock availability in the country to take the right decision,” said Rohit Kumar Singh, secretary, DoCA. In 2022-23, the kharif pulses sowing areas were reduced by around 4% due to erratic rainfall in major growing areas like Maharashtra, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. The latest estimation of tur production is 36 LT, lower by 6 LT in the previous year.
Since October last year, the government has maintained it is monitoring the pulses crisis. It’d appear it did not make timely market intervention by procuring pulses directly from farmers. It started procurement in March. The procurement agency National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) has not revealed any data on the procurement target and how much it has procured yet.