Govt plans to make India self-sufficient in pulses production in three years

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India’s imports of pulses decreased by 60 percent between 2017-18 and 2022-23, as its production increased by 9 percent. Encouraged by this, the government devised a plan to focus on increasing the production of tur, awrad, and musawwar, which would make the country self-sufficient. This will be done in particular by increasing productivity even further. There has been a 41 percent increase from 655 kg/ha to 924 kg/ha in the yield of pulses in the last seven years.

“We have drawn up a plan to increase production every year in some specific countries over the next three years, which will help us to have enough additional production of pulses by 2025-26, to bring the import down to zero level,” an official source in the Ministry of Agriculture said.

As of this year, the sources said, a target of 45.5 liters was set for turf, 23.88 liters for lad and 16.95 liters for spring fencing crop.

However, since there were many hurdles to achieve the target, the Ministry of Agriculture has taken up the matter with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to sort out the issues in implementing the Seed Center Scheme.

The seed program faces hurdles

In February, the Kanpur-based ICAR’s Indian Institute of Legumes Research (IIPR) gave a detailed presentation at an internal meeting on progress under the Breeders’ Enhanced Seed Production (EBSP) and Seed Center programmes. According to the IIPR, the Seed Hub prograrrne, which began in 2016 at 150 sites with a goal of 1,000 quintals of seed production per center, faces several limitations such as slow uptake of seeds by states and other agencies, and lack of a seed certification agency in the Northeast. and lack of funding for the coordination cell.

In a letter to ICAR, the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperation said during its recent Khareef conference (May 3), countries were advised to raise seeds from seed centers. However, several action points such as Seed Hubs will be rolled out under the IT platform in a couple of months, including traceability and geo-tagging, full research analysis on the impact of seed centers, cost analysis of seed production from seed centers, and production support for seeds produced in She indicated that the seed axes that will be worked on have not yet been received, while she asked for urgent measures to be taken.

The data shows that among the 22.86 liters of pulses imported during the April-February period of the 2022-23 fiscal year, Tor had the maximum share of 8.22 litres, followed by Masour at 7.34 litres and Eure at 4.94 litres.

Al-Tur occupies 33 percent of the area of ​​pulses and contributes 48 percent of the total production of khareef pulses. Of this, the three largest states – Maharashtra, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh – contribute 64 percent in area and production. Awrad owns 28 percent of the area and 23 percent of the output of Autumn Pulse. The top three states – Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh – contribute about 73 percent to the region and 69 percent to the urad production.