Not enough water for most crops, Latur farmers bank on chana during rabi season

“There’s not enough water in Latur to grow wheat. Nor do we have a market really here for mustard. That leaves us with only chana, for which there is both water and market (Latur is a major trading and processing hub for soyabean and pulses such as chana and tur or pigeon-pea),” says the 55-year-old’s son Ganesh.

Ganesh, who is 22 and pursuing a pharmacy degree at Bidar in Karnataka, is overseeing the bagging of their already-harvested kharif (monsoon) soyabean crop. This, even as a tractor is ploughing 8 of their 12 acres field for sowing of chana in the next few days. The Kawales sold their entire 52 quintals of chana from last year’s crop on the same 8 acres to the Ranban Agro Producers Company. This farmer producer organisation (FPO) procured the crop on behalf of the government at last year’s MSP of Rs 5,230 per quintal. “The payment came after a month. But the wait was worthwhile, as it saved us the cost of transport to the Latur market. Also, the price there was only Rs 4,600/quintal,” points out Ganesh.

The MSP for chana has been raised this time by only Rs 105/quintal (to Rs 5,335), as against by Rs 110 (to Rs 2,125/quintal) for wheat and by Rs 400 (to Rs 5,450/quintal) for mustard. However, Ganesh does not mind: “Traders are sure that chana will again sell below the MSP. But so long as I can sell at the village procurement centre and get the MSP, even a Rs 100/quintal increase is fine”.

For farmers in Maharashtra’s pulses belt – basically the districts of the mostly rainfed Marathwada and Vidarbha regions – chana is practically the only crop that can be grown in rabi. One reason is that they can plant it on the same field after harvesting of their kharif soyabean. “Also, it requires very little inputs. I just need to give half-a-bag of di-ammonium phosphate at the time of sowing, besides a little bit of potash and no urea (pulses and legumes are naturally nitrogen-fixing). Even field preparation involves just a simple tilling using a tractor,” explains Ganesh, whose family grows wheat, kardi (safflower) and fodder on the balance 4 acres for home consumption and feeding their animals.

Hansraj Patil, another farmer from the same village, plans to sow chana on 12 of his 20- acre holding. “Wheat requires minimum 3-4 irrigations. Chana can survive even with the residual moisture after harvesting of soyabean in a normal monsoon year. Can there be any other crop like this?,” he asks.

But a major reason why chana has found favour with farmers, particularly this time, is the assurance of government procurement. It has helped them realise the MSP even though the pulse has been fetching less in the open market.

At the Latur APMC (agriculture produce market committee) Mandi, chana is currently trading at Rs 4,500-4,600/quintal, well below the government-declared MSP. Fortunately, the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation, through state-level agencies such as the Maharashtra State Cooperative Marketing, the Vidarbha Cooperative Marketing Federation and the MahaFPC, has been actively procuring chana from farmers in the last 2-3 years.

In the 2022-23 marketing season (April-June) alone, government agencies bought 25.92 lakh tonnes (lt) of chana. Out of that, Maharashtra accounted for 7.60 lt and Madhya Pradesh 8.02 lt. For farmers, the game-changer has been the village level procurement centers run by FPOs like Ranban that are a sub-agent of the state-level MahaFPC federation.

Dayanand Patil, from Anjansonda in the neighbouring Osmanabad, managed to sell his entire 80 quintals chana produce of 15 acres to an FPO’s procurement centre at Leet, a nearby village. “In April, when my crop was ready, prices in APMCs such as Kharda (Ahmednagar district) and Barshi (Solapur) were Rs 4,500-4,600. But for the FPO at Leet, I would have had the sell at those rates,” points out Patil, who also grows wheat, onion and rajma (kidney beans) on his total 50-acre holding during rabi. In the kharif season, he reserves 30 acres for soyabean while and 8 acres for tur. The remaining land is kept for his livestock to graze.

Traders in Latur aren’t very bullish on chana. They note that around 1 lt of even the crop procured in 2021-22 is at present lying in government warehouses. “The surplus chana stocks will prevent any possibility of prices going up in the immediate future,” Nitin Kalantari, a leading Latur-based dal miller and importer of pulses told The Indian Express.

The problem of plenty in chana is in contrast to wheat and even rice, where government godowns aren’t overflowing like they were hardly a year ago. But farmers like Dayanand Patil and Ganesh Kawale have little option but to sown chana.