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Union Budget 2025-26: FM Nirmala Sitharaman announces ‘Mission for Pulses’ as import bills soar

‘Mission for Aatmanirbharta in Pulses’ will have a special focus on tur, urad, and masoor.

India’s pulses imports were valued at $3,275.25 million during April-November 2024, a 56.6 per cent jump compared to the same period in 2023. (PTI Photo)

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Saturday announced the launch of a six-year ‘Mission for Aatmanirbharta in Pulses’ with a special focus on tur (pigeon pea), urad (black gram), and masoor (red lentil) during her Budget speech.

The announcement came after India’s import bill for pulses witnessed a year-on-year increase on the back of a deficient monsoon.

While welcoming the government’s move, Ganesh Nanote, a farmer from the village of Nimbhara, in Barshitakli taluka of Akola district in Maharashtra, said assured prices for pulses would encourage growers.

Nanote, who is cultivating pulses on seven out of his total 22 acres, said the present mandi prices are around Rs 6,000-6,500 per quintal. “This does not meet the production costs – what we need is surety of prices. The government has talked about procurement through its agencies. However, the quality parameters are extremely tight. They should be relooked,” he said.

India’s pulses imports were valued at $3,275.25 million during April-November 2024, a 56.6 per cent jump compared to the same period in 2023. The country’s pulses imports fell from a peak of $4,243.13 million in 2016-17 to $1,943.89 million in 2022-23. But this was reversed in 2023-24, with imports amounting to $3,746.78 million. The current fiscal (2024-25) could see pulses imports scale a new all-time-high. Domestic pulse production is still largely rainfall-dependent. The poor 2023 monsoon led to lower domestic production and higher imports this year.

Grown mostly in the rain-fed areas of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Rajasthan, pulses especially tur suffer from vagaries of nature. Lower-than-expected yields and low prices have been major issues with pulse growers. India had reported 109.99 lakh hectares of pulse sowing area in the crop year of 2024-25, which was a sharp drop from the 274.94 lakh hectares of 2023-24. In the last five years, the largest acreage was reported in 2021-22 when pulses were sown over 307.31 lakh hectares.

Keeping the spectre of climate change in mind, the Mission has put its emphasis on the development and commercial availability of climate-resilient seeds, enhancing protein content, increasing productivity, improving post-harvest storage and management, and assuring remunerative prices to farmers, noted experts.

Parthasarathi Biswas

Partha Sarathi Biwas is an Assistant Editor with The Indian Express with 10+ years of experience in reporting on Agriculture, Commodities and Developmental issues. He has been with The Indian Express since 2011 and earlier worked with DNA. Partha's report about Farmers Producer Companies (FPC) as well long pieces on various agricultural issues have been cited by various academic publications including those published by the Government of India. He is often invited as a visiting faculty to various schools of journalism to talk about development journalism and rural reporting. In his spare time Partha trains for marathons and has participated in multiple marathons and half marathons. ... Read More

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