The government’s procurement of chana (gram), which has a share of more than 48% in the country’s pulses production, has crossed 1 million tonne (MT) in the this Rabi season (2022-23) so far compared to just 0.3 MT in the same period past year. This is due to the heavy harvest which has pulled down mandi prices below the Minimum Support Price (MSP).
National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (Nafed) procures pulses on behalf of the department of consumer affairs and department of agriculture and farmers’ welfare, under a price compensation fund and price support scheme.
Farmers’ cooperative so far has purchased 1.01 MT of chana in Gujarat (0.37 MT), Maharashtra (0.34 MT), Karnataka (0.06 MT) and Telangana (0.05 MT) of chana from farmers since the starting of the month. Rajasthan is expected to procure around 0.3 MT of chana in the this session from the farmers. In Madhya Pradesh, around 0.4-0.5 MT of chana is expected to be procured in the next month or so.
At present, the standard mandi prices of chana at Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana are currently ruling in the range of Rs 4,600 – Rs 4,900 a quintal, while the MSP is Rs 5,230 a quintal. According to the second advance estimates for the 2021-22 season, chana output in the 2021-22 crop year (July-June) is expected to touch 13.12 MT as against 11.91 MT reported in 2020-21.
A major part of the total production of desi chana goes into additional processing for producing gram flour (besan). Gram has 0.6% weightage in food inflation calculation. India continues to urge an effective stop on imports of yellow peas (matar) which were mostly used as a low-cost substitute for desi chana for making Gram flour (besan). Officials said that the effective stop on yellow pea imports was to protect domestic prices.
