NEW DELHI: The country's pulses imports are likely to rebound this fiscal on account of an expected decline in kharif pulses production and continued strong domestic demand, according to the latest report of the USDA.
India depends on the import of pulses to meet the domestic production shortfall of 3-4 million tonnes. Last year, total pulses imports declined on the back of record domestic production of 18.07 million tonnes.
"Imports in 2011-12 are expected to recover from last year's low due to the expected shortfall in the kharif pulses production and continued strong domestic demand for protein-rich products," the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said in its latest report.
Domestic production of pulses during the kharif season is expected to decline by nearly nearly 0.8 to 1 million tonnes vis-a-vis last year's record output of 7.1 million tonnes due to a shift in cultivation activities in areas under pulses to rice, soyabean, and cotton, it said.
Recently, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar had said that lower kharif pulses production was a concern.
According to preliminary official trade data, pulses imports in the 2010-11 fiscal were estimated around 2.6 million tonnes, compared to 3.5 million tonnes in the previous year, it said.
The major suppliers of pulses to India were Canada (1.2 million tonnes), Myanmar (4,80,000 tonnes), Australia (2,12,000 tonnes), the US (2,03,000 tonnes), Tanzania (1,44,000 tonnes) and Mozambique (89,000 tonnes), it added.
Pulses are grown in both the kharif (summer) and rabi (winter) season. Presently, farmers are harvesting kharif pulses and sowing of rabi crops would begin next month.
Quoting market sources, the USDA report said kharif pulses output is expected to dip owing to crop damage following heavy late season (September) monsoon precipitation and floods in some producing states.
As the major share of India's pulses production is accounted for by rabi pulses crops, favourable soil moisture conditions due to extended monsoon rains should support higher production, it said.
"However, it will be a challenging task to raise the rabi pulses production higher than last year's record rabi pulses production to offset losses in the current kharif pulses crop," the report noted.
The government has made a contingency plan to increase the area under rabi pulses cultivation and has allocated additional funding of over Rs 800 million for pulses farming under the ongoing National Food Security Mission, it added.
Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com