Pulse
prices are raging in Indian markets, leading to outrage from urban customers.
Newspapers are full of coverage, cartoons and puns on pulse prices. The fate of
rural population facing successive droughts which has to buy pulses is better
left to imagination. If some benefits of this price hike were to reach actual
pulse farmers, it would have been some consolation. But for now, as Pulse
farmer Ashok Pawar from Osmanabad tells me, the Tur (Arhar/Pigeon Pea) that is
in the market is last year’s. It was sold to the middle men (Adatya in
Marathi) and market committee at a low rate as the production was
dismal due to late rains and drought followed by unseasonal rainfall. This
happened in 2013 too. Tur from 2014 is now being sold at a record price, the
farmer watches this helplessly.
Same is the story told by Sachin Gavali, a
young farmer and student who had planted Udad and Moong in part of his field in
the drought-struck Latur district of Maharashtra this year. He received low
price for his Udad even this year as he sold early and because the production
was low.
Due to the severe drought, pulse production
has fallen to such an extent that from an acre, Ashok Bhau got
only 1-1.5 Quintals of Udad, which can be sold at 11,000 Rs. now.
Although 11,000 is much higher than the MSP, it does not make a difference as
the production is extremely low. Sachin is sadder because he could not make
even that much. He had to sell at Rs. 8000 per quintal in early October.
Both
have sugarcane on their fields too and Ashok Bhau says he will continue to irrigate sugarcane,
a 100% irrigated crop, even if that means less production of Tur or the remnant
udad and moong in his field. Per acre, sugarcane will give him
assured 30,000 Rs as profit when profit from pulses is about
7000-8000 Rs per acre.
Although pulses are hardy
crops and need little water, they do need water in times of stress. With
farmers diverting irrigation to crops with assured returns, how will pulse
production grow? Without incentives to the farmer, any growth in
pulses at this time will be at the cost of the farmer, who has been subsiding
urban customers enough already.
Even as pulse prices rage around us, the fact
that farmers are not secure with pulses points to a number of issues.
While pulses, in the form on split dals or
legumes are the primary source of protein for Indians when about 80% Indians
suffer from insufficient protein intake, pulse production has
recorded less than one percent annual growth during the past 40 years. This
is less than half of the growth rate in Indian human population (India’s
Pulse Scenario, National Food Security Mission). The productivity
rise is not spectacular either. Per capita net pulse availability has declined
from around 60 grams per day in the 1950s to 40 grams in the 1980s and further
to around 35 grams per day in 2000s (NFSM)
Decline in Pules production: According to the 4th Agricultural
estimates brought out by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Pulse
production in 2014-15 has come down to 17.2 million tons as
against the target of 19.5 million tons. In 2013-14 it was 19.25 Million Tons.
Even in the drought of 2012-13, the production was more than this year at 18.34
tons. Main reasons behind the decline are drought in
pulse-growing zones, affecting Kharip Pulses (mainly Udad and Moong) and unseasonal rains
affecting Rabi pulses like Masur and Gram. More than 80% area under
pulses in India does not have protective irrigation cover and vagaries of
rainfall are catastrophic, especially for Kharip pulses, which have a short
growing span. India’s pulse production is nowhere close to its demand. Imports
of pulses are increasing year after year, at a huge cost.
India is the biggest producer of pulses
accounting for 24.5 per cent share of pulse production in the
world. Other major producers of pulses in the world are Myanmar (7.3
per cent), Canada (7.2 per cent), China (6.4 per cent), Brazil (5.1 per cent),
Nigeria (3.9 per cent), USA (3.2 per cent), Australia (3.1 per cent) and
Ethiopia (2.9 per cent) (FAO Stats).
State-wise area and
production Major pulse-producing Indian states are the ones which
face maximum droughts and depend heavily on rain fed agriculture.
Maharashtra tops the area and
production of Tur or Pigeon Pea at an average of 11.34 Lakh Hectares or 30%
area and production of 8.3 Lakh tons or 32.9% of the country. It is followed by
Karnataka, but the difference is nearly double in terms of area and production.
Uttar Pradesh leads in Udad
production planted over 4.9 Lakh hectares, giving 2.6 Lakh Tons production. It
is closely followed by Maharashtra.
Rajasthan leads in Moong
production at around 9.5 Lakh Hectares, producing about 3.5 Lakh Tons. Again
followed by Maharashtra. Karnataka leads in Horse gram Production, followed by
Odisha.
In terms of Rabi crops mainly Chickpea, Madhya
Pradesh leads the country with 30 lakh hectares area, which is
35% of the country and 29.2 Lakh Tons production, 38.5% of the country.
It is followed by Maharashtra. On the whole, Rajasthan leads
in Kharip Pulse project closely followed by Maharashtra, Karnataka and Uttar
Pradesh while Madhya Pradesh leads in Rabi Pulse
production with over 38 Lakh Hectares followed by Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh
and Maharashtra.
Within the states, pulses are grown on rainfed,
light soils with meager irrigation cover. For example in Maharashtra, which is
one of the leading producers, Vidarbha region has 40% area and 40%
production of pulses, followed by Marathwada which accounts for 35% area and
35% production of pulses. Most of this area is rain-fed. (Kelkar Committee
Report 2013)
Year
|
Area (million
hectares)
|
Production (million tonnes)
|
Yield (kg./ hectares)
|
1980-81
|
22.46
|
10.63
|
473
|
1990-91
|
24.66
|
14.26
|
578
|
2000-2001
|
20.35
|
11.08
|
544
|
2010-11
|
26.40
|
18.24
|
691
|
2011-12
|
24.46
|
17.09
|
699
|
2012-13
|
23.47
|
18.34
|
781
|
Above: Area, Prodcution and Yeild of Pulses in India
since 1980s Source: Ministry of Agriculture
Import of Pulses: Because of thae
largest consumption and decreased production, India is thelargest importer of
pulses too. The imports increased from 2.2 million tons to 3.8 million
tonnes in 2012-13. In value terms, the imports of total Pulses have
increased from US $ 0.7 billion in 2001-02 to US $ 2.3 billion in
2012-13, around 12,000 Crores!
Why are pulses still risky? So logically, if pulses
need little water, little processing, fetch such great prices, are always in
demand and if we are losing so much of foreign exchange on buying pulses from
countries like Canada, Myanmar and Australia, why are farmers
not planting more of pulses? Why is area and quantity of
sugarcane produced increasing in leaps and bounds, when it needs huge amounts
of water, fertilizers and not even a food crop and whose production exceeds our
needs, but production of pulses is declining and area under pulses is growing
at a snail’s pace? Why is it that sugar, a hugely water intensive product, both
in cultivation and processing, costs about 28 Rs./ kg in market, but gives the
farmer an assured return of about 20,000 Rs/ acre, when pulses, which do not
need water or intensive fertilisers, are processed only primarily and cost
about 150 Rs/Kg still give the farmer a paltry 7000-8000 Rs/acre? How
can any radical shift to pulses happen in such circumstances?
These are some perplexing questions, with no easy
answers.
But look at it from the
prism of water resources, low-input, sustainable agriculture and marginal
farmers, and you cannot have a better mascot of sustainability than pulses.
Water: First of all, pulses
need limited water, in fact, more water ruins production. Most Kharif pulses
like Udad and Moong have shallow root zones, while Tur has slightly deeper
rooting and makes it tough enough to withstand droughts. As compared with
sugarcane, pulses need about 20 times less water. Almost all area under
pulses in India is rain fed. For example, in Maharashtra, pulses
are grown over 16.8% of the Gross cropped area, but only 3.8 Lakh hectares
of this area is irrigated, which takes just 3.4% share in irrigation water.
Compare this with sugarcane which is grown over just 4% area, but is 100%
irrigated and takes 71.5% of irrigation water in the state.
While pulses do not need excessive irrigation,
they depend on monsoon rainfall and some winter rains. Water is crucial in
branching, flowering and pod forming stages, absence of which directly
hits production. Ashok Bhau has got only 1 quintal of udad per acre this year,
as rains did not come when his crop needed it. Unlike sugarcane, pulses are
also vulnerable and unable to withstand too much gap between waterings and will
entirely wilt off in the absence of water. This was the reason why pulse
production dropped in 2014 when Marathwada and Vidarbha received just
about 20% average rains in June. Being short duration crops, they are also
more susceptible to extreme weather events, so excessive and heavy
rains in August 2014 again meant resounding losses to pulse farmers. Climate
change is a reality for India, its not a matter of conjecture. Rainfall has
been erratic, unseasonable rainfall events have been on a rise since the
past 5-6 years, hitting the ephemeral pulse production badly.
Is there no way out from this?
Protective Irrigation: Marathwada grows sugarcane on 2.3 lakh
hectares of land. If 50% of this is converted into drip or other non water
intensive crops, it would mean 2161.2 MCMwater
available, which if supplied to provide protective irrigation to pulses, will
mean 21.6 lakh hectares additional to area under
irrigated pulses. Even if we assume that this area was already under
rain-fed Tur with rainfed yield of 750 kg/ha, the net additional production
possible with this irrigation is 1.6 Million Tons or
additional income of Rs 70,500 million. This is also close to the target of
increasing pulse production by 2 million tonnes of the National Food Security
Mission.
This is a hypothetical case. While sugarcane has
to be brought under drip, sugarcane farmer will not agree to shift to pulses
completely. Why should she/he give up sugarcane which gives assured returns,
even if the returns are shrouded in conflicts and struggles? Pulses
have never given even comparable returns as against sugarcane to the farmer. If
we expect a shift to happen, pricing and procurement policy of pulses
should reflect their true value.
To enable this shift, drip has to be heavily
supported, like it is being done in Solapur right now through the efforts of
Collector Tukaram Mundhe. But it will also require better groundwater
legislation, better Climate Change Action Plan, robust and honest Crop
Insurance to guard farmers against losses in time of extreme weather events.
That will not happen unless the government recognises the invaluable
services that pulse farmers are providing, & reward them for
the same. The fertiliser, power and irrigation subsidy that state provides to a
sugarcane farmer is more than Rs 10,000 per capita per year and government
needs to seriously consider such subsidy to the pulses farmer too.
According to Former
CACP Chair Mr. Ashok Gulati, the capital costs of irrigating one hectare of
land in Maharashtra lie somewhere around 6.6 Lakh rupees (they
would be much higher realistically, thanks to multiple
cost escalations). According to the White Paper on Finances by the
Government of Maharashtra (2015), in the year 2013-14 the cost of electricity
given to farm pumps, borne by the government is 3695 Crores. 46%
of this subsidy flows only to 5 districts, with Solapur cornering maximum
subsidy.
Rain-fed pulse farmers do not get a part of the
irrigation funding, nor have the privilege of the electricity subsidy. By not
being a part of these, they save huge amounts of public money, while producing
the most important protein source.
It will be smart move by the government to
provide direct incentives to pulse farmers, not
limited to the measly MSP, which though increased over the years, never reaches
the farmer and is not enough in the first place.
Pulses are Climate
Friendly: India just published its Intended Nationally Determined
Contribution (INDC)
in tackling challenges of Climate Change, ahead of the Paris Climate Change
Negotiations. While promoting newer, and supposedly “cleaner” technologies,
we continue to neglect the strong contribution that dryland farmers, forest
dwelling communities, fisher-folk have been making for years while eking out a
very modest living. We are willing to spend thousands of crores in Climate
Friendly technologies, but are not ready to acknowledge, incentivise and
encourage these groups.
Nitrogen Connection Most of the cash
crops receive NPK fertilizers, in which N stands for Nitrogen. These
fertilizers are produced mainly from Natural gas and their production is energy
intensive with a high on carbon footprint, they are also subsidised. When
Nitrogen-rich fertilizers are applied to soils, soil microorganisms convert
some of this nitrogen to nitrous oxide, a gas which can escape to the
atmosphere. Nitrous oxide is a powerful greenhouse gas; with 298 times the
global warming potential of carbon dioxide[ii].
India is the third
largest Nitrous Oxide emitter in the world, following China and
United States. However, Pulses need no nitrogen application as they
themselves fix atmospheric nitrogen into the soil!
This
means that a pulse-growing farming is not only taking less water from the
system and using less energy, she/he is also emitting less greenhouse gases and
is in fact, enriching the soil with nitrogen. These nitrogen-fixing
benefits can be passed on, ranging upto 31-97 kg/ha to the soil for
next succeeding crop.
Even in terms of processing, Pulses need only
de-husking and separation into dals, a primary process which is less
energy intensive, than say, sugar factories, which not only consume power but
also pollute water resources. The husk is a valuable cattle feed, tells
Ashok Bhau. The processing can and should happen at village level itself, so
that it provides additional employment and value addition at the village
level.
Because of their low
input nature, pulses are the crop of marginal farmers who are not able to
appropriate either subsides or water from the system and save thousands of
crore rupees per year. But what is the support that they are getting from
our welfare state?
Is the MSP reaching
farmers? According to 2014-15 CACP report, although MSP of pulses have
been raised on paper, it is meaningless as hardly any procurement happens from
farmers. Two most important procurement agencies of the Government of India
namely FCI and NAFED were set up with the main objectives of procuring notified
commodities at MSP, if and when the market prices go below MSP. “These
agencies have been in the existence for over 50 years and 30 years
respectively. Yet, the benefits of MSP bypass a large section of farmers,
rendering the pricing policy and procurement operations ineffective.” (CACP,
2015)
Ask the farmer about this and a dismal
picture arises. Sachin says they hear about MSP only in newspapers and on
the TV, not in agri produce mandis where pulses are sold. Ashok Bhau
talks about the sheer exploitation that happens at the hands of middle men
and “Adte” while fixing the price of pulses, playing on farmer’s need for
immediate cash. As highlighted by this episode of Truth Vs
Hype where SANDRP contributed, Government is
conspicuous by its total absence in these mandis where farmers sell their
produce.
Now contrast this with the struggle for FRP (Fair
Remunerative Price) and government interventions, for the sake of sugarcane
farmers. Even the Prime
Minister has had to engage with the sugarcane FRP
discussion. Pulse farmers have never received such attention from
the system. This is despite the fact that Prime Minister
Modi himself, during his address at the Indian Council for Agricultural
Research (ICAR) said in
2014, “The poor get their requirement of protein from
pulses. Take it as a challenge that in a few years there will be no need to
bring edible oils and pulses from outside. This is a national challenge and it
must be taken up as a priority.”
What is true about pulses, also holds true for
Oilseeds, wherein too India is a huge importer. In the case of oilseeds (edible
oils) India imported a record US$ 11.2 billion (Rs 61,106
crore) worth of edible oils in 2012-13 (16.2 percent jump from last year)
and US$ 2.3 billion (Rs 12,730 crore) worth of pulses (an increase of 28.4
percent as compared to last year).(CACP 2015)
According to the CACP report: “Lack
of robust and dependable procurement machinery for oilseeds and pulses do not
enthuse farmers to diversify towards these crops as NAFED has not been
able to procure significant quantities of pulses and oilseeds. Unless some
credible measures to strengthen procurement of these commodities are
taken, farmers of other countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia will
continue to benefit at the cost of Indian farmers. The
Commission recommends to radically restructure NAFED so as to enable it to
accomplish its main objective function of procurement of pulses and
oilseeds if and when market prices go below their respective MSPs.”
