Ahead of the commencement of the harvest season, the price of tur (pigeon pea/red gram) dropped by 10% to 15% during the past month, to about the minimum support price (MSP) level of $6,600 a quintal. This has led to growers calling for a quick start on the purchase of the pulses. Additionally, the price of domestic prices is being affected by an increase in the cheaper imports of tur from East African nations and Myanmar.
Agmarknet, a division of the Agriculture Ministry, reports that the modal price (the price at which most deals occur) in the Gulbarga market has dropped to $6,800 levels from $7,800-7,900 in early November. Growers worry that prices would likely decline further as a result of the fresh harvest, which is expected to reach markets in the upcoming two weeks. This year, the large-producer Karnataka’s tur crop was delayed by two to four weeks.
According to Basavaraj Ingin, president of the Karnataka Pradesh Red Gram Growers Association in Gulbarga, this is mostly because excessive rainfall during June-July had an adverse effect on the early sowed crop, causing some farmers to undertake replanting in various locations. “We have urged that the public procurement begin early in the harvest season this year,” he stated.
In some areas of the two major tur-producing states of Maharashtra and Karnataka, the new crop market arrivals have begun. Rahul Chauhan of IGrain India noted that the new crop that is entering the markets has a high moisture content. The first preliminary estimates from the Agriculture Ministry put this year’s Kharif tur production at 3.89 million tonnes (mt), down from 4.34 mt last year.
