India is poised to shatter its pulse production record with a huge 2010-11 harvest.
Agriculture minister Shri Sharad Pawar released India’s third advance estimate of crop production last week, which forecasts 17.29 million tonnes of pulses.
That’s up from the Feb. 9 estimate of 16.51 million tonnes and just shy of India’s annual consumption of about 17.5 million tonnes.
This year’s crop dwarfs the previous 10-year average of 13.52 million tonnes and is more than two million tonnes higher than any annual production over the past decade.
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Stat Publishing said the plentiful harvest allowed the Indian government to end its 15 percent pulse import subsidy program for state trading companies. Stat forecasts a 12 percent decline in pulse imports in 2011-12.
Pawar said the better-than-expected results are due to government initiatives such as improved minimum support prices and a program introduced in March, 2010 directed at 60,000 villages in dryland areas that improved water resources and farming practices.
A new version of that program will operate in 2011-12. India’s government has budgeted $65 million for the program, to be implemented in 12 states accounting for 96 percent of pulse production.
The government is directing $39 million, or 60 percent, of the money toward a program that shares costs at 50-50 with farmers to build or refurbish on-farm water storage tanks and ponds. The plastic sheet-lined ponds, 20 metres by 20 metres by three metres deep, will store water for two or three “life saving” irrigations.
Another $19 million has been allocated to promoting better management practices.
Finally, the government is spending $5.8 million to help Indian pulse farmers create about 150 producer organizations of about 1,000 farmers each to help them gain access to inputs and improve their marketing.
The remander of the funding will be spent on government monitoring and evaluation.
Garth Patterson, executive director of Saskatchewan Pulse Growers, thinks demand will remain strong for Canadian pulses despite the new initiatives.
He recently returned from a trade mission to India where Indian pulse companies said they were eager to develop supply agreements with Canadian exporters.
“The trade is telling us they’re going to continue to need more (imported pulses),” said Patterson.
The Indian government is attempting to boost per capita pulse consumption, which has fallen from historical levels. That also bodes well for import demand, he said.
But the Indian government said it is determined to meet demand with its own production.
It is relying on groups like the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) to help it meet its goal for self-sufficiency.
The institute has released 57 varieties of chickpeas and pigeon peas in India over the last three decades.
Chickpea varieties released by the agency are early maturing, resistant to wilt disease, tolerant to warm temperature, have a large seed size and deliver 15 to 25 percent higher yields.
Two recent pigeon pea hybrids yield up to 40 percent more than check varieties of comparable maturity.
Patterson doubts India will become self-sufficient because it has long suffered from poor varietal development and distribution.
“We’ve heard that hype before and it hasn’t come to fruition,” he said.
Pawar told attendees of a national conference for the 2011 kharif or summer crop that the record production of 2010-11 should not lead to complacency because India is a long way from achieving its food security goal.
In a news release from India’s ministry of agriculture, he urged state governments to prepare contingency plans for various monsoon scenarios for the coming crop, noting that the country is still dealing with the inflationary effects of the monsoon failure of 2009.
Pawar instructed state governments to do some advance planning to meet grower requirements for seeds and fertilizers and implement surveillance and monitoring programs to help control pests and diseases.
He shared production tips such as using seed treatments, asked the states to ensure their agriculture staff were not deployed on other assignments during seeding and encouraged states with poor production results to learn from states that had good results.
