In a bid to keep pulses price under check, that went sky-rocketing during past few months, the Centre has now decided to create buffer stock of pulses.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday gave its approval for creation of buffer stock of pulses. The buffer stock will be created in current year itself.
In its meeting held here, the CCEA has approved procurement of about 50,000 ton pulses from the kharif crop 2015-16 and one lakh ton out of arrivals of rabi crop of 2015-16. Procurement of pulses will be done at market prices through the Food Corporation of India (FCI), the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd. (NAFED), the Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) and any other agency as may be decided.
The SFAC will undertake procurement through the Farmer Producer Organisations and the procurement in kharif and rabi 2015-16 will be done at market price above minimum support price (MSP) out of the price stabilisation fund.
The CCEA also decided to import pulses, if need, through a public sector enterprise of ministry of commerce. In case the prices fall below the MSP, pulses for buffer stock will be procured at the MSP under price support scheme of the department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare.
In India pulses production is dependent on rainfall as pulses are mostly grown in rainfed areas. Pulses witness huge fluctuations in prices depending upon rainfall. It is necessary to create a buffer stock of pulses to reduce price fluctuations. This will also help in providing remunerative prices to farmers in times of excess production.
Notably, the Agriculture Ministry has identified gaps in the present strategy to increase production of pulses and has identified lack of availability of new varieties of seeds as an important hindrance in increasing productivity of pulses.
