Contract farming of pulses in Mozambique.

Faced with acute shortage of pulses, India has reached out to Myanmar and Mozambique to explore possibilities of leasing out agricultural land to grow the lentils to meet domestic demands. Private traders used to import pulses from Malawi and Mozambique, but the imports were erratic and fell short of meeting domestic demand. In 2015, Government of India floated tenders for the import of pulses but received poor response and thus in 2016 it has reached out to Government’s of Mozambique and Myanmar to undertake contract farming of pulses .

The prevalent situation of pulse production and consumption in India:

• India’s ubiquitous position as the leading producer, the foremost consumer and the largest importer of pulses is further besmirched by abysmally mediocre policy intervention and equally unimpressive agricultural research budgets.
• Pulses in India recorded less than 40 per cent growth in production in the past 40 years while its per capita availability declined from 60 grams a day in the 1950s to 35 grams a day in the 2000s.
• Currently, even as production has stabilised at 18.5 million tonnes, our consumption is hovering at 22 million tonnes, which necessitates yearly pulse imports of around 3.5-4 million tonnes.
• The prevalent rice-wheat crop rotation in the northern States, particularly in Punjab and Haryana, has depleted soil and water resources at an alarming rate. Apart from an unsustainable and inefficient agricultural cycle, India is losing precious forex (nearly $2.3 billion) while importing pulses from players such as Canada and Australia.
• Price fluctuation is common in the largely unorganised pulses market of the country, and often exacerbated by the lack of assured procurement. Estimates suggest that India needs an annual growth of 4.2 per cent to ensure projected demand of 30 million tonnes by 2030. To meet this benchmark, constraints to production must be analysed and effective steps must be taken.

Analysis:

Steps to improve situation:

The production of pulses in India falls short of domestic demand and import is difficult as not many world nations have export surplus pulse production.

Pulse prices are volatile due to supply demand mismatch and to correct this domestic cropping patterns need to be relooked and imports expedited.

Pulse production is not water intensive and the crop is usually grown in dryland areas of Central India which are dependent upon rainfall. The yields are low as erstwhile Green revolution did not focus on pulse production. HYV of pulses are absent and furthermore pulse crop is prone to diseases and pest infestation.

Dal Mills are not efficient and cause a lot of wastage in terms of broken grains.

To encourage farmers to grow pulses, MSP should be raised and govt' should facilitate Research Centres.

Crop rotation should be encouraged in Wheat -rice belt so that ground water can be replenished, especially in Punjab and Haryana. Short duration varieties can be grown.

Impact of pulse shortage on Indian economy.
In India, pulses are the chief source of protein for the masses. The other sources of protein are eggs and meat which are expensive. If India is to reap benefits of demographic dividend in coming years, she has to ensure that incidence of protein deficiency diseases like Kwashiorkor and Marasmus are eliminated, such that children stay healthy and develop the required cognitive and intelligence skills to add productively to nation’s workforce.

Secondly, volatility in pulse prices symbolizes India’s ineffectiveness to comprehend the importance of availability of an essential dietary component that is necessary to reap the benefits of demographic dividend. Food inflation has the capacity to not only widen relative poverty levels but also the potential to permanently erode the quality of human capital which would cost the country dearly in terms of inflated medical bills, low labour force participation rate and fall in purchasing power of rupee.

By: Abhinav