Pulses

During his visit to Myanmar, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it was important to work out long-term arrangements for the trading of pulses and beans between the two countries. However, there was no agreement to lift India’s import restrictions on Myanmar’s pulses and beans.

Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corp has invited bids to buy 30,000 tonne of processed pulses to be delivered at the agency’s warehouse in Chennai. The processed pulses should be as per Agmark specifications. The agency procures any one of the following–tur dal, or Canadian yellow masur, or red masur whole dal. Bids must be submitted on Sep 15, and opened the same day. The bids remain valid for acceptance till Dec 12.

The profit margin of pulses farmers fell 16 per cent on average in 2016-17 due to record production. If gram is excluded, margins have fallen by 30 per cent. While the selling price of pulses fell, the cost of cultivation continued to rise. Cost of cultivation increased 3.7 per cent year-on-year in agriculture year (July to June) 2016-17, compared with 2.8 per cent in the previous year and hence increase in MSPs did little to stem the fall in their earnings. Fall in farmers’ income is due to a record production of 22.95 million tonnes of pulses in 2016-17, up 40 per cent over the previous year and 19 per cent higher than the previous record of 19 million tonnes in 2013-14.

Maintaining the record pulses output of 2016-17 (Jul-Jun) this year would be a challenge as some farmers have shifted to other crops looking for better realisations. Last year we harvested record pulses and reached close to self-sufficiency. This year it seems a challenge. Indian farmers harvested 22.95 million tonne of pulses in 2016-17, up from 16.35 million tonne previous year, according to the fourth advance estimates of farm ministry. National Bulk Handling Corp Pvt Ltd has estimated India’s kharif pulses output for 2017-18 at 8.5 million tonne, less than 9.4 million tonne harvested a year ago. India’s pulses output seen falling this year as the bumper crop last year weighed on prices, discouraging farmers from sowing pulses.

As September comes around with the promise of the first harvests in a few weeks, data released by the Ministry of Agriculture on Friday indicate that the overall kharif season sowing acreage as of the end of August is 0.5% less than the previous year. This year, farmers across India have moved decisively away from what were once profit-making crops such as oilseeds as well as jute, whose profit margins continue to remain insignificant. The equilibrium in sowing acreage comes almost entirely from an 18% increase in cotton acreage and 9% increase in sugarcane acreage. Farmers across the country have chosen to invest more in cotton this year. The highest increase comes from Telangana, which has sown 18.24 lakh hectares of cotton against last year’s 12.5 lakh hectares, representing a 5% increase.

The Food Corp of India has sold nearly 60,000 tonne pulses over the 15 days through open market sales scheme. Sale of pulses has picked up now. In a meeting held on Aug 17, government allowed us to sell entire stock of moong, while for other pulses, they allowed sale of the stock purchased more than nine months ago. The central government issued a permit to sell 395,000 tonne of domestically purchased pulses from its stocks. The Centre is selling pulses from its buffer stock by floating tenders under the open market sales scheme to dispose of inventories, which rose sharply due to a bumper output last year followed by high imports.

Madhya Pradesh Cabinet approved price deficit mechanism for eight crops in the ongoing kharif season on pilot basis to ensure fair price for the produce. Under this mechanism, the government will compensate farmers the difference between modal price of a crop and its MSP in case the modal price falls below the MSP. Soybean, groundnut, sesame, ramtil, maize, moong, urad and tur crops of kharif have been included in this scheme. Farmers have to register themselves on the government’s portal till Sep 30 to avail benefits under the scheme. The mechanism would ensure fair prices to farmers without the hassles of actual procurement and storage of crops.

Import of pulses at Mumbai’s Nhava Sheva port in July was down 43.7% on month at 78,816 tonne, according to data from a shipping agent. Import of pulses declined in July as domestic prices were lower than those in the global markets. A sharp decline in imports of chana, moong and urad led to a fall in imports in the last month.

After fixing the import limits by the Indian government, the largest pulses importer in India, Myanmar pulses Industry of $ 1 billion is in danger. According to sources, the Myanmar Agri Ministry has informed the Indian Embassy there on what the Indian government can do to protect the losses incurred by Myanmar farmers. Significantly, 80 percent of pulses production of Myanmar is exported to India. Sources reveal that in the first week of September, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi is visit Myanmar, there is a discussion in this regard. It is worth mentioning that a special team from Tanzania came to India a few days ago to discuss this topic.

There was not much activity at the wholesale market as prices by and large moved in a narrow range on alternate bouts of trading and pegged at last levels. Adequate stocks position against sporadic demand mainly kept pulses prices steady.

Australia is learnt to be exploring ways to help India transform into a pulses-processing hub. Towards this objective, the Australian government and that country agri-business companies hold talks with the Government of India and Indian companies including those into processing, retail and imports of pulses, on the sidelines of the Australia Business Week in India (ABWI). The ABWI is slated to be held from August 28 to September 1 with an aim to promote Australian capability and expand Australia trade, investment and education relationships.

In Ukraine, early cereals and pulses were harvested from 9639 Th hectares (100%). Farmers gathered 37224 KMT with an average yield of 3.86 MT/hectares against 37948 KMT with an average yield of 3.94 MT/hectares as of August 22, 2016. Farmers got 1095 KMT of peas from 410 Th hectares with an average yield of 2.67 MT/ha. As of August 22, 2016, these figures equaled 763 KMT, 237 Th hectares and 3.22 MT/ha, respectively.

Yangon has blamed New Delhi for restricting import of three major pulses from Myanmar, saying that the move has plunged Burmese pulses industry into chaos. In August, India announced a 200,000-ton import quota on pigeon peas and 300,000-ton quota on mung bean and green grams. The severe restriction by India limiting the amount of pea products from Myanmar has quickly and adversely affected the Burmese pulses market. The restriction would help support prices of lentils in India but would put pressure on producers in Myanmar who rely heavily on export to India. Myanmar has been exporting peas to India for nearly three decades, while India exported medicines, sugar and agricultural machinery to Myanmar. Yangon’s commodity depot has ceased operation due to India’s import quota restriction on pulses, prompting the pulse prices to plummet.

IMD’s Agrimet has advised farmers to sow short duration varieties of kulthi, urad, and tur in fallow land after the current spell of heavy rains in Jharkhand. The state is among the leading growers of kharif paddy, pulses and oilseeds. During Jun 1-Aug 23, the state received 4% above-normal rains.

The National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India has offered 385.30 tonne of moong, 23.75 tonne urad, and 3.39 tonne of tur for auction through NCDEX e-Markets. The moong, urad, and tur being offered are stocked at warehouses in Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Telangana, respectively.

Import of pulses at Chennai port fell 22.7% on month to 57,048 tonne in July. Imports of pulses declined in July as domestic prices were lower compared with those in global markets. Demand from millers was also subdued in July which led to the fall in imports. The decline in imports was led by a sharp fall in shipments of tur, moong and urad.

The NCDEX Ltd add Akola, Jaipur and Ashok Nagar as additional delivery centres for chana futures expiring from December. New additional delivery centres were major producing and processing centres and would assist market participants at these locations to trade efficiently on the exchange. Exchange has also advised to take note of increase in position limit as notified on Aug 14 as per the SEBI.

Government has capped the import of urad and moong at 300,000 tonne per year, decision comes after traders urged the government to impose restrictions on import of the grains to ensure better prices for the domestic crop. Sowing of moong, however, has slowed down due to poor rains in the major growing states of Karnataka and Maharashtra. On Aug 5, the government had notified an import limit of 200,000 tonne per year for tur. It had also imposed an import duty of 10% on tur in March, which raised hopes of similar duties on import of urad and moong.

The government import restriction on arhar, tur seems to have paid off with pulses prices rising by 20 per cent in the Mumbai wholesale markets. Traders, farmers and companies feel this is a positive trend ahead of the harvest of urad and moong pulses in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, as prices have been ruling below the minimum support price fixed by the government. Weak and uneven rains in key pulses growing states were a concern for the trade which had led to the rise in prices. If the government allows export of pulses for the entire trade rather than only giving importers the benefit to export, prices can further increase. Further, if the government procures pulses which are soon going to be harvested at MSP rate, it supports the price. Also, the decision of the government to offload its 1.9 million tonnes of pulses buffer stock have an impact on the market.

The National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd and NCDEX e-Markets Ltd have signed an agreement to create an e-platform for the procurement of oilseeds and pulses directly from farmers. The e-procurement platform enables farmers to sell the commodity to NAFED and NCDEX e-Markets online. This also provide end-to-end solution for the commodities till its storage in the warehouse and its disposal. Hassle-free transactions can be carried out as the platform is linked with the Core Banking System of banks for direct bank transfers into farmers account. The exact amount payable to them calculated and the amount transferred directly to their Aadhaar-linked bank accounts. The platform used by all NAFED state units for procurement of pulses and oilseed.