As per the reports released by the Ministry of Agriculture on June 10 on the preliminary Kharif sowing, the area under Kharif crops stands at 71.24 lakh hectare. When compared to the last year’s reports, it was found that the area under Kharif crops stood at 76.65 lakh hectare at this time of the year.
It is reported that pulses have been sown in 1.46 lakh hectare of land in the financial year 2015-16, against 2.32 lakh hectare, at this time last year.
The price of pulses remained a cause of concern for the government as well as for the public in 2015. The less production of pulses culminated to increased prices. Prices of tur sky rocketed to Rs. 200 per kilo in the retail market as the two back-to-back droughts in India affected the pulses production badly.
In 2015-16, Kharif pulses’ production stood at 5.49 million tons. This year Kharif pulses’ production target is set at 7.25 million tons. Along with Kharif pulses, Rabi pulses were also not able to reach the target. Even with a subdued production of Rabi pulses, there has been a marginal improvement in the year 2015-16, at 11.57 million tons against 11.42 million tons in 2014-15. But, it was very low in comparison to the production figures of 2013-14, which was 13.25 million tons.
Chana prices are the classic example of Rabi pulses production shortfall. At the same period last year, Chana prices were trading around Rs. 4800 to Rs. 4850 per quintal while it is trading now at Rs. 7100 to Rs. 7150 per quintal.
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