National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED), the apex cooperative marketing federation of the country and the largest procurement agency for pulses in association with Global Pulse Confederation organised the celebration of World Pulses Day on Monday at the Ambedkar International Centre, 15, Janpath. The curtain raiser of the event was held on Sunday at the Taj Mahal hotel.
The celebration was inaugurated by Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Narendra Singh Tomar. Member, Niti Aayog, Ramesh Chand, Minister of Food, Civil Supplies and Public Distribution; Youth Affairs, Manoj Kant Deb, President, GPC, Cindy Brown, Director, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, Sanjeev Chopra and FAO Representative to India, Tomio Shichiri were present during the inaugural session.
The conference had overseas delegates from Canada, Australia, Argentina, UAE, Myanmar and many others along with senior government officials, state officials, trade and industry, foreign missions, scientists, trade analysts, media and the farmers. The two days event deliberated on various issues related to production, consumption, market and nutritional value of pulses.
In his inaugural address, the chief guest mentions that India continues to be the world’s largest producer and consumer of pulses. The import dependence is gradually reducing with increase in domestic production and country is moving towards self-sufficiency of the pulses which continues to be major source of plant protein diet for majority of Indians. He mentioned about the various pro-active measures taken by the government to enhance the pulses production in the country including the hike in the Minimum Support Price and record levels of procurement of pulses made in recent past to support the farmers. He complimented the efforts of Nafed in procuring around 63 LMT of pulses in last two-three years.
Speaking on the occasion, he mentioned that his department is targeting for pulses output of 26.30 million tonnes this year, which may be record production. He called for self-sufficiency in pulses and also to ensure that the they are available at affordable prices for the benefit of consumers.
Chand called for measures to improve the yield level of pulses which continue to be lower than the pre-green revolution period before 1965. He mentioned that a number of policy changes have been done by the government to seek involvement of private trade in the procurement, processing and value addition of pulses.
Brown mentioned about the environmental benefits of production of pulses. The increase in fertility of the soil with rotational crops, the requirement of protein rich diet for addressing the issue of malnutrition were addressed by her.
The inaugural session was followed by the technical sessions which discussed varied issues ranging from enhancing pulse production, promoting pulse consumption for nutrition, processing of pulses and value addition as well as market and policies. Ashok Dalwai, CEO, National Rainfed Area Authority spoke about the progress made by the country in pulses production and able procurement of pulses by Nafed to support the farmers. He complimented the efforts of Nafed and hoped that the country will be able to export pulses soon.
Sanjeev Kumar Chadha, MD, Nafed, expressed happiness on the outcome of the event. He mentioned that Nafed has organised this kind of international event for the first time on a commodity, which it has been handling for long as the nodal agency of Government of India. He hoped that the deliberations of the conference will go a long way in future policy planning of management of pulses in the country in the future.