More Stories

Informist, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025

 

By Pallavi Singhal

 

NEW DELHI – The government is rethinking how the country grows pulses, a senior official in the agriculture ministry said. Outlining the thinking behind the government's Pulses Mission, the official said it wants to shift the focus from price support alone to productivity, opportunity cropping, and targeted land-use change.

 

For years, India's pulses strategy has leaned on procurement, with minimum support prices being raised annually to encourage farmers to sow more. Yet the results have been uneven. Though prices have been assured, acreage and output have struggled to keep up the momentum. Total pulses area peaked at 30.73 million hectares in the crop year 2021-22 (Jul-Jun), but slid thereafter to 27.72 million hectares in 2024-25, a decline of nearly 10%, according to government data.

 

Production has mirrored this trajectory. Output eased from 27.30 million tonnes in 2021-22 to 25.68 million tonnes in 2024-25, underscoring the limits of a procurement-led approach even as policy support expanded.

 

It is against this backdrop that the government is now attempting a course correction. The Pulses Mission, the official said, is being positioned as a long-term structural intervention rather than a short-term response to price volatility. According to the official, the mission is moving to measures such as improving yields, bringing pulses into rice-fallow and marginal lands, and encouraging diversification away from water-intensive crops. "We need to think a little differently," the official said, adding that boosting pulses production is critical for the country's food security and for sustainability and reduced import dependence.

 

Explaining the mission's thrust, the official said, "Our strategy is to make pulses competitive." Improving productivity is central to this push. "For the productivity of pulses... varieties and the technology management practices--that is the science part," the official said, indicating that research-led interventions are being made a priority.

 

The safety net of price support remains but will no longer be the sole lever. The official reiterated the Centre's assurance on procurement support. "The government has already said arhar (tur), urad, masur, chana (will be procured)... on minimum support price, the government will purchase 100%," the official said, adding that actual procurement will continue to depend on proposals sent by state governments.

 

A key component of the strategy will be to expand pulses acreage without displacing existing crops by tapping land that remains unused after the kharif rice harvest. "Rice fallow is around 11–12 million hectares in this country... we are targeting it for pulses," the official said, noting that even partial coverage could significantly boost production.

 

States in eastern India--Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, and Assam--along with parts of southern India such as Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh, have been identified as priority regions, according to the official. The government will attempt to promote pulses in these regions as an "opportunity crop" and "catch crop" that can add to farm income even with moderate yields.

 

The official underlined that the government is avoiding a uniform approach across states and will focus instead on chalking out region-specific policies. "Our strategy is geographically differentiated... one size fits all is not going to help us," the official remarked. The diversity of agro-climatic conditions and farmer profiles in the country makes "situation-specific or targeted interventions" essential, the official added.

 

The mission is also being aligned with sustainability goals. The government is examining environmental incentives linked to crop diversification. "There is an opportunity for carbon credits... rice's environmental footprint versus legumes," the official said, noting that pulses consume less water and fertiliser and could eventually qualify for carbon-linked incentives once verification systems mature. Such incentives, the official said, could "complement income support" while nudging farmers towards less resource-intensive crops.

 

The official acknowledged that excessive subsidies for some crops have distorted cropping patterns in some states. "You are subsidising everything for inefficiency... it is not a good idea," the official said, arguing for policy mechanisms that reward efficient use of resources. "We should have a mechanism... where we make payment for incentives for efficiency."

 

This rebalancing will be particularly relevant in rice-dominated states. Calling India's rice acreage unsustainably high, the official said, "We do not need 51 million hectares of rice... we do not need more than 40 million." Excess rice production, the official noted, strains water resources and public finances through fertiliser subsidies, procurement and storage costs, even as the country remains dependent on imports for pulses.

 

New Delhi's renewed focus on pulses comes against the backdrop of continued import dependence. Despite being the world's largest producer of pulses, the country regularly turns to the world markets to bridge supply gaps, particularly for tur, urad, and masur. It imports 15-18% of its annual pulses consumption--mostly from Africa, Myanmar, Canada, Russia, and Australia. Imports tend to rise sharply in years of weak domestic output. India imported a record 7.3 million tonnes of pulses in the financial year 2024-25 (Apr-Mar).

 

The government has time and again stated the need for a more durable, productivity-led strategy at home, rather than relying on imports to manage shortages. The Union Cabinet on Oct. 1 approved a six-year central scheme aimed at achieving self-sufficiency in pulses production, with a financial outlay of INR 114.40 billion. Under the Pulses Mission, the government has set a target of increasing pulses production to 35 million tonnes by the crop year 2030-31 from 24.2 million tonnes in 2023-24. The mission aims to increase the area under pulses to 31 million hectares from 27.5 million hectares and productivity to 1,130 kg per hectare from 880 kg per hectare by 2030-31.  End

 

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

 

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd. by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd., a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt. Ltd.

 

Informist Media Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

 

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2025. All rights reserved.