By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, JUNE 22, 2024: UNION Minister of Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare and Rural Development Shivraj Singh Chouhan  has said that the Centre is committed to procure Tur, Urad and Masur at  Minimum Support Prices (MSP) to ensure crop diversification and achieve self-sufficiency in pulses production. Chairing a virtual meeting with agriculture ministers of various states at Krishi Bhawan in New Delhi today, Chauhan said e-Samridhi portal has been launched through National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd. (NAFED) and National Cooperative Consumers' Federation of India Limited (NCCF) for registration of farmers and government is committed to procure these pulses at MSP for farmers registered on the portal. He urged the State Governments to encourage more and more farmers to register on this portal so that they can avail the facility of assured procurement.

The Union Minister said that the country is not self-sufficient in production of these three crops and aims to achieve self-sufficiency by 2027. Chauhan complemented the states for their efforts in increasing pulses production by 50 percent since 2015-16 but called for more efforts in increasing the yield per hectare and motivating farmers for growing pulses. He appreciated the fact that the country has achieved self-sufficiency in green gram (moong) and gram (chana) and mentioned that the country has reduced dependency on imports from 30 percent to 10 percent during last 10 years. Chauhan urged the states to work as a team with Centre for making India not only self-sufficient in foodgrains production but also the Food basket of the World.

He informed about the new Model Pulses Village scheme which is being rolled out from the current Kharif season. The minister requested the State Governments to utilize the fallow lands which are available for pulses after the rice crop is harvested. Chauhan also asked the State Governments to take up inter-cropping of Tur in a vigorous manner. He mentioned that the State Governments should share their best practices with each other and visits should be undertaken for this. He mentioned that the elected representatives such as MPs, MLAS should be actively involved in the KVKs.

The Minister spoke regarding the need for crop diversification towards cash crops and the need to restore the fertility of the soil. He stressed the requirement of timely and quality inputs to farmers such as good quality seeds for increasing the productivity and assured maximum support regarding this. He informed that for availability of good quality seeds, the Government of India has opened 150 Pulse Seed Hubs and Cluster Front Line Demonstrations (CFLDs) are being given by the ICAR in the low productivity districts. He mentioned the need to develop climate resilient varieties and short duration varieties so that the effects of climate change could be countered. He requested the State Governments to strengthen their seed delivery systems by strengthening the State Seed Corporations.

The meeting was called realizing the necessity for immediate attention to increase the pulses production in the country with a view to reduce imports. State Agriculture Ministers of the major pulses producing States namely, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Bihar, Telangana were present during the meeting. The State Governments appreciated the efforts being made by the Centre through the National Food Security Mission (NFSM) and assured of full cooperation. They mentioned that since the monsoon has been predicted as above normal, the targets set by the Government of India are very likely to be achieved. The States recognized the need for increasing the distribution of high yielding varieties of seeds and also the need for increasing the area under pulses on an urgent basis. The Union Minister assured all the support to states and invited all state agriculture ministers to Delhi for holding a detailed meeting of agriculture scenario of the state and address any issues collectively.

Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Ram Nath Thakur and Bhagirath Chaudhary, Agriculture Secretary Manoj Ahuja and Secretary of Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) and Director General of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Dr. Himanshu Pathak were also present in the meeting.