NEW DELHI, India (Reuters) — India is lifting a five-decade-old ban on a type of lentil that has been linked to nerve damage and paralysis.
It’s seen as a desperate attempt by prime minister Narendra Modi to cut legume imports and make the nation self sufficient in the crop.
India has been hit by back-to-back droughts for the first time in over three decades, and its lentil output has fallen and prices have nearly doubled. The government has now cleared three varieties of the khesari lentil, which can grow in dry or wet conditions.
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The opposition Congress party, which is trying to pressure Modi over continuing rural hardship, said the government was playing with the health of unsuspecting Indians by allowing the cultivation of khesari.
However, Narendra Pratap Singh, director of the state-run Indian Institute of Pulses Research, said the varieties developed by Indian scientists contain a lesser amount of a neurotoxin that can damage nerve tissues and weaken the legs of both humans and animals than previous varieties.
“The government thought if in a reasonable quantity it can be consumed, then why not allow it, particularly when there’s a crisis and we’re importing pulses,” said Singh.
Khesari is still eaten in eastern India and neighbouring Bangladesh, mainly as a cheap source of protein for millions of poor people, despite the ban placed on the lentil in 1961.
“This is how the Modi government is tackling price rise, by lifting (the) ban on a pulse that’s medically proven to cause paralysis,” a Congress party spokesperson said.
Singh said the three varieties now allowed have been ready for the last 10 years, and “various experiments on animals have shown there are no adverse long-term effects if consumption is in reasonable quantity.”
Indians eat 22 million tonnes of lentils a year. They are used to make a thick stew called dal, commonly taken with rice or flat bread across South Asia.
One-fifth of the lentils are imported from countries such as Canada, Australia and Myanmar, which grow the legumes mainly to sell to India.
Modi wants India to be self sufficient in lentils, and last month approved a scheme to encourage greater cultivation of the legumes. Higher incentives for water-intensive crops such as wheat and rice have made India a big grain producer at the cost of other key crops such as lentils and oilseeds.
