Mumbai, Feb 10 (PTI) It is time to focus on pulses and oilseeds with policy support, as was done with cereals during the Green Revolution, the India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA) said on Thursday.
“I am convinced that it is time for India to focus on pulses and oilseeds as we did with cereals during Green Revolution. Pulses deserve the similar kind of policy, research and investment support.
“With the current government attention, India’s production of pulses has reached a new high of 23-25 million tonnes,” IPGA Vice Chairman Bimal Kothari said at a virtual event on the 4th World Pulses Day.
Stating that India has a large processing industry with several thousand dal mills across the country, Kothari said most dal mills are too small and do not have the resource to enhance capacity.
“The government should consider instituting a ‘Dal Mill Modernization Fund’ to modernise dal mills to enhancing capacity,” he added.
Speaking at the event, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said food production, food security and climate change are interlinked and changing climate will continue putting pressure on the agriculture ecosystem.
“Droughts, hurricanes and floods will continue to pose threat to agriculture and in turn food security. Future of food is certainly pulses and they can play a key role in addressing the problem of food security. Pulses are drought-resistant, are affordable sources of protein and also help keep soil healthy,” he noted.
Pulses, moreover, have genetic diversity and this paves the way for development of more pulse varieties that are climate-change resilient, he added.
S K Malhotra, Agriculture Commissioner, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, said a multi-pronged strategy needs to be followed for agriculture production and development, particularly for pulses.
“In 2015-16, total production was 16.2 million tonne for pulses against a 25 million tonne of requirement. Then a roadmap was made to achieve productivity-led growth. This could only be achieved by coming up with new varieties that are high yielding with special resilience towards drought and other climatic conditions. This was implemented under the National Food Security Mission Programme,” he said.
With this programme, the country was able to reduce import-dependence of pulses to an extent that India is now exporting pulses, he stated.
Nafed Additional Managing Director Sunil Kumar Singh opined that the government has taken a slew of initiatives to boost pulse production.
“If the pulse production reaches 30 million tonnes, it would be a good way to provide pulses at an affordable price. This cannot be achieved through one part of the value chain alone and, therefore, underlines the role from farm level to retail level so that this cheap source of protein is available to the poor to help reduce malnutrition.
“We have been supported by the government through fund, policy and infrastructure. Lot of work needs to be done to enhance research to meet agriculture and climate challenges which are reducing production level or damaging produce,” he added. PTI SM ABM ABM
