What is impact of importing pulses and grains on farmers and what is the stand of government?
Answers
The year 2016-17 was a crisis year for pulses, with prices skyrocketing past the Rs 100-150 per kg mark amid crop failure.
In the following years, farmers significantly increased the area under pulses. During the crisis year, India signed an MoU to import 3.75 million quintal of pulses in 3 years from Mozambique.
But farmers are now paying a price for this because the government allowed the import of 1.5 million quintals of tur dal last week. Farmers are holding a stock of nearly 6 million quintal with them, as prices have fallen far below the minimum support price. To add to the pain, another 10 million quintal tur is estimated to be with various government agencies.
India's pulse import in 2018-19 is likely to be in the ballpark of $1.5 billion, which is much lower than 2016-17 ($4.2 billion, 6.6 million tons) and 2017-18($2.9 bn, 5.5 million tons), declining in step with falling prices.