How India has become relatively Atmanirbhar in Pulses compared to Edible Oil

How India has become relatively Atmanirbhar in Pulses compared to Edible Oil

Subject :Geography

Section: Economic geography

Context:

• There are two agricultural commodities in which India is significantly import-dependent: Edible oil and pulses.

High import dependence on edible oil:

• Between 2013-14 and 2022-23 (April-March), the value of India’s vegetable oil imports soared from $7,249.85 million (Rs 44,038.04 crore) to $20,837.70 million (Rs 167,269.99 crore). Much of this has been in just the last two fiscal years.
• Out of the 24-25 million tonnes (mt) cooking oil that the country consumes annually, only 9-10 mt is from domestically produced grain. The balance of 14-15 mt is imported.

Relative self-dependence in pulses:

• The value of imports has posted only a marginal rise during the past nine years from $1,828.16 million (Rs 11,036.75 crore) to $ 1,943.89 million (Rs 15,780.56 crore).
• Imports went up initially to reach a high of $4,244.13 million (Rs 28,523.18 crore) in 2016-17, only to fall substantially thereafter.

• In quantity terms, India’s imports of pulses more than doubled from 3.18 mt in 2013-14 to 6.61 mt in 2016-17. Then they have come down to 2.70 mt in 2021-22 and 2.52 mt in 2022-23.
• The major cause of decline is the higher domestic production of pulses.
• According to the Agriculture Ministry, India’s pulses output has increased from 19.26 mt in 2013-14 to 27.50 mt in 2022-23.

• In the above chart, it can be seen that imports of two items have recorded dramatic drops: Yellow/white peas (matar) and chickpeas (chana).
  • Yellow/white peas – imported mainly from Canada, Russia, Ukraine and Lithuania.
  • Chickpea is mainly imported from Russia and Australia.
• The boost to chana production came from two key government measures, incentivizing Indian farmers to expand the area under the pulses crop grown during the rabi (winter-spring) season.
  • The first is the levy of a 60% import duty on chana since March 2018.
  • The second intervention has been government procurement at minimum support prices (MSP).
• Though the same is not being replicated to the other pulses like: Arhar or Pigeonpea and Urad or black gram (a Kharif crop). Moong (green gram) has fared better. 
  • Its (Moong dal) estimated production of 3.74 mt in 2022-23, for the first time, overtook Arhar’s at 3.43 mt.
• Arhar is mainly imported from Mozambique, Myanmar, Tanzania, Malawi and Sudan.
• Masoor (red lentil) is mainly imported from Canada and Australia and has crossed 1.1-1.2 mt in some years.
• There is currently no duty on imports of masoor, arhar or urad.