Despite drought, State sees record toor dal production

It touches 75 lakh quintals this year as against previous year’s 45 lakh quintals

In demand: The record production is mainly because of a few timely spells of rain in the toor dal belt of North Karnataka.

At a time when the State is reeling under drought said to be the worst in the last four decades, toor dal has stood out by registering a record production.

The production has touched 75 lakh quintals this year as against the previous year’s 45 lakh quintals. This, according to officials, is mainly due to a few timely spells of rain in the toor dal belt of northern districts and also large scale switching over to the crop by farmers cultivating other crops after toor dal fetched remunerative incomes last year.

Farmers not happy

But the record production is not good news for farmers as prices of the crop have slumped due to glut in the market, forcing the government to resort to market intervention scheme. The wholesale prices have reduced from previous year’s ₹8,000-10,000 a quintal to ₹4,500 a quintal now.

Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda told

The Hindu that the government had already procured nearly 15 lakh quintals of toor this year as against last year’s procurement of 2.5 lakh quintals.

“Based on the demand for sowing seeds and increased area of cultivation, we initially set the procurement target of 7.5 lakh quintals. This was later enhanced to 15 lakh quintals, but now we have further increased the target to a whopping 25 lakh quintals. It is going to be a huge production of toor that the State has ever recorded,” the Minister said.

Total sowing area of toor in the State last year was 7 lakh hectares, which increased to 10 lakh hectares this year. The total production this year is over 75 lakh quintals, of which nearly 40 lakh quintals have been grown in Kalaburagi and another 30 lakh quintals in Vijayapura, which are major toor growing districts.

Meanwhile, the officials said that the total procurement of 25 lakh quintals by the government was only for food security scheme, while the remaining is purchased for local consumption directly by consumers or by the mill owners.

The Karnataka State Co-operative Marketing Federation, which has set up 48 procurement centres in eight districts, has urged the government to extend the procurement for at least two more months considering the huge quantum of arrivals expected later. “We have purchased only around 30% of the total production. We need at least two more months; the government should extend the deadline for procurement under the Price Stabilisation Fund scheme,” said Sanjay Patil, director of the federation.