Stock Limits On Pulses
- October 5, 2021
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Stock Limits On Pulses
Subject – Agriculture
Context – the decision to impose stock limits on pulses is flawed policy
Concept –
- The Union government’s decision on July 2, 2021, to impose stock limits on pulses till October 31 has once again fuelled the long-held perception that the country’s food policies are not even consistent, let alone being relevant.
- On June 5, 2020, the Union government issued the Essential Commodities (Amendment) (ECA) Ordinance, 2020, which was later legislated into an Act.
- It said a stock limit would be imposed only if there was a 100 per cent rise in retail prices of perishable food items in the last one year or five years.
- The rationale for this amendment was that India was food surplus in most agricultural commodities. Farmers were not able to realise fair prices due to lack of investment in warehousing and processing capacities because of regulatory mechanisms prescribed under the ECA, 1955.
- The lack of ‘ease of doing business’ was also cited for the poor investment in storage and processing infrastructure by the Economic Survey 2015-16 and the Arvind Subramaniam Committee Report on Pulses (2016).
- Farmer unions, which are demanding repeal of the ECA, 2020, along with two new farm Acts, now argue that the recent stockholding limits contradict the Act.
- Importers claim lower stocking limits would make imports costlier as container costs and prices would go up.
- In India, pulses are under minimum support price (MSP), but farmer awareness is poor as procurement is not effective.
To know more about Pulses Import Curbs, please click here.