Prices of pulses – the traditional accompaniment of ‘roti’, ‘chawal’ (as dal), ‘idli’ and ‘dosa’ (as ‘sambhar’) have been the butt of jokes for a while now. ‘Sone key bhao ke dal’ (pulses selling at the price of gold) said some. Others jested that burglars had begun to identify the rich, not by the width of their cars or size of their homes, but by the stash of pulses on the larder.
Jokes apart, prices of pulses like pigeon pea (arhar or tur dal), green pea (moong dal), black lentils (urad dal) and chickpea or gram (chana dal), climbed steadily over the past five months to hover close to the Rs 200 a kg mark by mid-June. The prices of ‘dals’ assumed proportions of a crisis similar to the shortage of onions.
Onion shortages have had the distinction of driving governments to tears in the past and the pungent bulb has even been credited with bringing down a government or two. This year a bumper crop of onion caused prices to slide, leading to farmer unrests. Finally, export restrictions had to be lifted to enable onion growers to rake in some profit.
“Onion prices are cheap, but no one is talking about it,” commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman had complained, riled about the rising prices of pulses during an interaction with women journalists in June. As Union minister of state with independent charge over her portfolios, Sitharaman was among the ministers who attended the inter-ministerial meeting convened by Union finance minister Arun Jaitley on June 16, which decided to import pulses from Myanmar, Malawi and Mozambique to rein in prices, which were at that juncture on a runaway ride.
The minimum retail prices for ‘Urad’ had touched Rs 196 a kg, prices of ‘Tur’ were at Rs 166 a kg, ‘Moong dal’ was selling at Rs 120 a kg and ‘Masur dal’ (lentils) prices were Rs 93 a kg. The high-level panel had included the Union ministers for agriculture and parliamentary affairs. Prices of ‘dals’ have declined steadily since, after massive fire-fighting by government agencies. The June 16 panel had, for instance, decided to send government representatives to countries that produce pulses, to work out government to government contracts.
Two Union government teams visited Myanmar and Mozambique to reconnaissance for contracts, before the humble ‘dal’ acquired the distinction of being a commodity to be negotiated by none other than the Prime Minister of the country. During his visit to Mozambique on July 8, Prime Minister Modi signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to promote production of pigeon pea (tur or arhar dal) “by encouraging progressive increase in the trading of these pulses.”
The MOU was among three the Prime Minister signed, the other two being to promote sports and curb drug trafficking. The MOU on pigeon pea includes targets for exporting pulses from Mozambique to India for five financial years and aims to double the trade from a lakh tonne in 2016-17 to two lakh tonne by 2020-21.
Imports on a war footing have pushed down prices of pulses not just over the last few months, but across the decades, since production has never quite been on a par with demand. The estimated consumption of 23 million tonne of pulses and lentils in the country, is almost six million tonne short of the 2015-16 output of 17.06 million tonne.
On July 11, 2016 another inter-ministerial pow-wow, chaired by the Union finance minister, decided to jack up the buffer stock of pulses to 20 lakh tonne from eight lakh tonne. The panel also decided to woo farmers with higher support prices to grow more pulses. Pulses had not even merited a buffer stock a year ago. Buffer stocks have so long been maintained of cereals, like rice and wheat, apart from sugar.
Rice and wheat have traditionally been considered staple food in India, skewing the diet of the low income segment of the population − who are also dependent on the subsidized grain. Pulses, the only source of protein for a vast swathe of the Indian population, got clubbed with grain only as far back as 2007. The National Food Security Mission, which was set up in October that year, strives to augment production of rice, wheat and pulses.
Including pulses in the food security mission is recognition of the importance of ‘dals’ as an essential source of protein in a country, in which at least a third of the population are vegetarian. Statistics on the number of vegetarians in India, have evoked controversies because of evolving food habits − like younger members of vegetarian homes switching to eggs, meats and fish.
Few could contest the fact that people at the lower end of the economic spectrum usually are not able to afford proteins in their diet beyond pulses – and remain vegetarian not by choice, but out of compulsion. The July 11 decisions of the inter-ministerial panel, comprising the ministers of finance, food, consumer affairs and distribution and information and broadcasting, point to strategies to augment both the production and availability of pulses through imports.
The recent government efforts to make more pulses available at any cost to many more Indians, seem less of fire-fighting steaming food prices and more of a focused and concerted effort to make a balanced diet available – even to the economically deprived. The humdrum ‘dal’, which acquired a new beret as a ‘staple’ food in 2007, has obviously been winding its way into the policy plank of the government. The “watery dal” that meat-eating neighbours distinguish Indians with − is evolving into a symbol of change, if you forgive the exaggeration.
BW Reporters
Madhumita Chakraborty is a business journalist with long innings in media. She worked with The Economic Times, The Telegraph and The Financial Express before joining BW Businessworld. She has also been a columnist with Hindustan Dainik, a commentator on economic affairs on Lok Sabha Television (now Sansad TV) and a researcher.
