If there is one lesson that this pandemic has taught us, it is the importance of being “Atma Nirbhar” in food. Imagine the scramble for food when everything including import is shut down. Most countries which had food grains declared an export embargo during the pandemic. India is a rare country which not only fed its citizens and did it for free, but also gave food as humanitarian aid and exported it to countries in need.
During the lockdown, in May, the Government announced free supply of rice/wheat and also provided a kg of pulses each to about 20 crore family. From a situation of acute scarcity in 2015-16 when the country witnessed skyrocketing prices due to two successive years of drought, to providing free pulses to most citizens of the country in a never-seen-before times certainly needs a closer study.
The pulses’ crisis during 2015-16 was not a wasted opportunity but it set the country on an ambitious and desirable path of self-sufficiency. The Government acted on supply, demand and regulatory fronts with equal emphasis. The twin factors critical to immediate increase in pulses production was determining the Minimum Support Price (MSP) and procurement from farmers directly at this rate. Through the National Food Security Mission (NFSM) launched in 2016-17 additional area was brought under pulses cultivation. The Government aimed at increasing productivity and production of pulses in the country by distribution of seed mini-kits, subsidy on production of quality seeds, creation of 150 pulse seed hubs, involving ICAR institutes and State Agriculture Universities for cluster frontline demonstrations.
The Government increased MSP of pulses by 8-16 per cent in 2016-17. Elaborate arrangements were made for procuring of pulses from farmers under the Price Support Scheme . The Govt Guarantee for procurement operation was increased manifold. Foreseeing a need to have strategic buffer of pulses, 20 lakh MT buffer stock of pulses was created through the Price Stabilisation fund with a corpus of more than Rs 10,000 crore. The State Governments -- particularly those Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka which lead in pulses production -- worked in close coordination for procurement of pulses.
All these measures resulted in a 42 per cent increase in pulses production which is unheard of in any category of food articles and, certainly, such a jump has not been achieved in a span of one year in any country. National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation Of India Ltd. (NAFED) played a pivotal role in procurement under PSS and PSF by procuring 8.7 lakh MT in 2016-17. This amount was equivalent to the last 15 years combined.