Concern at poor output of pulses

DIRECTOR OF the Indian Institute of Pulses Research (IIPR) Dr Masood Ali expressed concern over the poor production of pulses in the country during the Ninth Plan.

DIRECTOR OF the Indian Institute of Pulses Research (IIPR) Dr Masood Ali expressed concern over the poor production of pulses in the country during the Ninth Plan.

Talking to HT here on Friday, Dr Ali said that no significant improvement in the production of pulses could be witnessed during the first four years of the Tenth Five Year Plan due to various A-biotic stresses. He said during the Ninth Plan, the production of pulses was 13.15 MT and during the first four years of the Tenth Plan it went up to 13.34 MT. He said in case the present trend continued, the demand supply gap for pulses would be insurmountable unless corrective measures were taken immediately.

He said the projected requirement of pulses by the terminal year of the Eleventh Plan was estimated at 20 MT which was almost 44 per cent higher than the present production of 13.92 MT.

He suggested that the government should adopt three-pronged strategy during the Eleventh Plan to increase the production of pulses as the productivity needed to be raised to 800 kg per hectare. Besides, about 2.5 million hectare area had to be brought under pulses through diversification of the existing systems, he said.Referring to the three-pronged strategy, he said stress should be laid upon improving the productivity, avoiding post-harvest losses.

He further said a conservative estimate of the average farm yield advantage of improved technology was about  30 per cent in pulses. Hence, it was  necessary to popularise the improved technologies, he said. He said pulses suffered heavy yield losses due to inefficient post-harvest practices. He said there were about 5500 medium and large size conventional Dal mills with average Dal recovery of 72 per cent, whereas  establishment of  modern Dal Mills of the same capacity have shown 83 per cent Dal recovery. Modernisation of Dal Mills could thus avoid losses to the extent of 0.90 MT from the total processed 9.0 MT of pulses.

Similarly, improper storage caused substantial losses which could be avoided by the State storage methods and structures. According to a rough estimate, 0.45 MT losses occurred due to poor storage facilities, he added.