Pulses self-sufficiency, a mirage?

In his Budget speech, the Finance Minister made a series of proposals for agriculture including continuation of last year's initiative of integrated development of 60,000 villages in rain-fed areas with an allocation of Rs 300 crores.

Intriguingly, last year he referred to development of 60,000 villages for 'oilseeds and pulses', but this year he had quietly dropped oilseeds and referred to only pulses villages in rain-fed areas for increasing crop productivity and market linkages.

The Government's initiative on pulses has received a positive response from the growers, the FM asserted, presumably referring to the sharp hike in minimum support price for pulses. No doubt, acreage under pulses has expanded substantially in 2010-11 in kharif and rabi season both, totalling a record 27.4 million hectares as compared with 24.3 mha the previous year.

Output too has expanded considerably to a new high of 16.51 million tonnes this year, close to two mt more than the 14.66 mt in 2009-10. To be sure, production increase has come about as a result of area expansion. Yields have remained by and large at a low level of around 600 kg a hectare, providing a stark contrast with world average yield of around 1,500 kg/ha.

While consolidating these gains, we must strive to attain self-sufficiency in production of pulses within next three years, the FM has recommended. Is his wish justified? The question is where will additional acreage come from and what are the strategic measures to raise yields. Who would answer these questions is unclear.

India has been importing pulses for almost 30 years now. What started as a few lakh tonnes of import to meet domestic shortfall has now grown to constitute almost a fifth of the domestic output. Currently, to meet the gap between consumption demand and domestic production, India imports about 30-35 lakh tonnes of various pulses from different origins including Myanmar, Australia, Canada and the US.

In recent years, domestic output and imports have totalled 17-18 mt which translates to per capita availability of about 15 kgs.

Nutritionists recommend consumption of at least 20 kg/capita. So, as a nation, we are no where near what we ought to be consuming. Worse, the current skew in income distribution has resulted in skew in consumption of pulses. Those with higher and rising incomes are able to access and afford pulses. The poor, especially in rural areas get to consume much than what the per capita availability suggests; and the poor are the ones who desperately need pulses, the major source of vegetable protein.

For achieving genuine self-sufficiency in pulses, we have to produce in excess of 20 mt. It is a tall order under the present constraining conditions for agriculture. Reaching self-sufficiency is no doubt a desirable objective; but one needs to consciously work towards it. It is up to the government to ensure that the desirable objective does not remain a mirage.

Mr. Pranab Mukherjee after all is not such a gullible person to believe that we would achieve self-sufficiency in pulses in three years without corresponding efforts. Pulses output is unlikely to expand consistently by about two million tons a year over the next three years. One can only conclude that the statement of self-sufficiency was made for theatrical effect.

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