The skewed pulses story

Many years ago, when I was doing my Ph.D. in genetics at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Delhi, I did my research on mung and urad daal, unlike most of my compatriots who did their research either on the major cereals like wheat, rice and maize, or on vegetables. Pulses was a neglected field of research then, as it is now. It was a crop of the marginal areas then and it continues to be so even today. This is baffling for a country where most people eat some form of daal every day.

We have, for decades, been importing large quantities of pulses to satisfy our daal requirements. In this way, we have boosted the agriculture of all those countries from where we have imported pulses and have helped to shore up the incomes of their farmers while neglecting our own. What sense does this make

The story of pulse imports unfolds every year. As I write, 5,000 metric tonnes (MT) of pulses have already been imported from Australia, Myanmar and Tanzania and a sum of `2,600 crore has gone from India to bolster the farm revenues of these countries. Another 2,000 MT of pulses have been ordered and, according to the most recent information, the government has decided to import yet another 3,000 MT of daal out of which 2,000 MT is arhar or pigeon pea and the remaining 1,000 MT is urad. Since there is a dearth of pulses in the international market, the rates are high. Australia has been a regular supplier of daal and during most years we also import from Tanzania and Myanmar.

Tired of waiting for policy support and incentives of the kind that the elite rice and wheat crops receive, farmers have practically stopped cultivating this protein-rich, nutritious crop. Instead of spending money towards incentivising cultivation of pulses, and other legumes, and putting money in the farmers’ pockets, successive governments have chosen the myopic approach of importing pulses from abroad thereby putting Indian money into the pockets of foreign cultivators.

Even more bizarre decisions have been taken. Instead of promoting home-grown daal, previous agriculture ministers like Balram Jakhar and Sharad Pawar, lobbied for contract farming of pulses in Africa, Latin America and, more recently, in Myanmar. The plan was to buy back the pulses produced by the farmers from these regions. The moot point is that this model will continue to boost the livelihoods of farmers in Africa, Latin America and Myanmar and raise their farm revenues.

At the same time, we will push down the production potential of our own farmers and keep sending out scarce foreign reserves. A perpetual scarcity coupled with unscrupulous hoarders keeps daal prices high in domestic markets. With daal prices hovering over `100 per kg and reaching as high as `180 to `200 per kg, this daily staple of Indian diet has been out of the middle classes’ reach for several years. While for the poor eating daal has become an unattainable dream.

Pulses have traditionally been cultivated by resource-poor farmers in rain-fed regions and, that too, in the more marginal areas. It is ironic that such a high-value crop — both from the point of view of nutrition as well as market value — should be given such low priority in government policy. It is clear that in order to change the situation, there will have to be major investments in research on a range of legume crops and not just a few easy ones like the chickpea variety.

Pulses demonstrate a great diversity in both production and consumer preferences. Hence, there is regional specialisation in pulse production. So, the lifting of production and productivity must happen for all varieties of pulses that are eaten in different parts of the country. Unfortunately, however, research in pulses continues to be relegated to the basement with very poor funding. It is not surprising, therefore, that there have been no breakthroughs in pulse production. It’s quite shocking that on the pulses front, things have not really changed much from the time that I was a student.

Even the new genie of agricultural research, the biotechnology boom that guzzles research funds, has carefully stayed away from doing anything for this most important crop. Despite all its rhetoric about solving India’s problems of hunger and malnutrition Agbiotech remains miles away from pulses, confining itself to dabbling in crops that have already demonstrated remarkable performance with conventional breeding and don’t need any exotic high-tech input like Bt genes.

Sorting out our daal scarcity is no rocket science. We need to support our marginal farmers in resource-starved agriculture belts and give them research breakthroughs coupled with the support and subsidies provided to prosperous farmers of India’s wheat and rice belts. This will incentivise farmers to become significant producers of pulses and there will be enough daal in the country at affordable prices. Then we can preserve our foreign exchange instead of spending it on imports from Australia, Myanmar and Tanzania.

The writer is a scientist who heads Gene Campaign, a research and advocacy organisation. She can be reached at mail@genecampaign.org and www.genecampaign.org