Govt expands procurement to include 3 pulses

THE PLAN STEMS FROM THE MODI GOVERNMENT'S MOVE TO END THE COUNTRY’S DEPENDENCE ON IMPORTS TO MEET LOCAL DEMAND FOR PULSES

- Zia Haq

The Centre has readied a policy to expand its procurement programme for farm produce, planning to purchase entire quantities of three key pulses varieties without any cap, in line with a similar policy for cereals, the top bureaucrat in the agriculture ministry said on Friday.

The move aims at nudging farmers away from growing surplus food grains, which itself is the result of unlimited federal purchases of cereals at minimum support prices, or MSPs, which offer growers an assured market. An MSP is a floor rate meant to avoid distress sales, but it has been mostly effective for cereals.