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Cooperation minister Amit Shah on Thursday asked farmers to take a pledge to make the country Atmanirbhar in pulses before 2028.
Launching a portal where farmers can register themselves if they want to get assured price, he said co-operatives such as Nafed, NCCF would buy the pulses at guaranteed price. Initially, the portal will be only for tur crop, but later on it would be extended to all pulses (except gram and green gram) as well as to maize.
The minister also transferred via Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) about ₹68 lakh to 25 farmers registered with Nafed and NCCF towards payment for sale of tur through the multi-lingual portal.
The National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (Nafed) and the National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation of India (NCCF) are two central nodal agencies that will undertake pulses procurement on behalf of the government under the scheme.
MSP assurance
After the launch, Shah said before the sowing operation, tur farmers can register on the portal to sell their produce at minimum support price (MSP). But farmers are free to sell anywhere even after registration and they will not be forced to sell to the agencies if they get higher rates in the market.
The registered tur farmers will receive an average rate in case the open market price remains higher than the MSP and that will be arrived through a “scientific formula”, the minister said. The payment will be done through DBT, he added.
Shah further said more farmers were not taking up pulses farming in the country because prices were not assured.
“Grow pulses, don’t worry about prices. We will procure at MSP,” the minister assured the farming community. He appealed to Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS), Farmer Producers Organisations (FPOs) and progressive farmers to create awareness about the portal and spread the advantages of the government initiative through WhatsApp and other social media.
“By December 2027, the country should become self-reliant in pulses. We will not import even one kilo of pulses from January 2028,” Shah said adding the aim should be to make India a net exporter of pulses.
He also said that already 537 PACS and several FPOs have already registered themselves with the portal. Besides, more than 1,000 PACS and FPOs, including 480 from Gujarat, 227 from Maharashtra, 209 from Karnataka and 45 from Madhya Pradesh have confirmed their participation in the coming days.
From 2.56 million tonnes (mt) in 2025-16, tur production surged to a record 4.87 mt in 2016-17, before coming down to a low of 3.31 mt in 2022-23. But, the agriculture ministry has estimated 2023-24 output marginally higher at 3.42 mt, despite lower acreage.
Maize farmers
Stating that maize field will be similar to oil field, Shah said soon the portal will allow maize farmers to register and link them with some ethanol producing company who will be purchasing the crop at MSP through the portal and transfer the money into the bank accounts of farmers.
As majority of the population in India are vegetarians for whom pulses are a major source of protein, the farmers should come forward to grow more of these crops and help in the Poshan Abhiyan programme.
He also said that as pulses crops can be grown with less water and also having ability to provide 30-40 kg of nitrogen on one hectare of land, farmers can save the soil and reduce input costs on water and urea.
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