DEFICIENT RAINFALL CAUSED A HIKE IN TUR PRICES - By Dr B K Singh & Ankit Kumar Singh

 

Tur crop grows over 150-180 days and is harvested only in December-January. It is mostly cultivated as an inter-crop with soyabean, cotton and even moong and urad. Farmers who inter-crop tur with soyabean would typically sow both after mid-June with the onset of the monsoon. It is a largely rain-fed crop, with hardly 8% of its total area coming under irrigation. Its relatively long duration of 5-6 months requires at least a couple of good showers. As Northwest India reels under excess rain, the situation is quite the opposite in the two major pulses-growing states of Maharashtra and Karnataka.

Impact of deficient rainfall

The overall shortfall in pulses area is a result of cumulative rainfall during the ongoing monsoon season from June 1 to July 11 being 23% below the historical normal average for this period in Maharashtra, 26.2% in Karnataka and 30.9% in Telangana. This is as against a rainfall surplus of 155.4% recorded by Rajasthan during this period. Within pulses, the real acreage lag is in arhar or tur (pigeon-pea), almost half from 15.064 lh to 6.012 lh. This isn’t surprising, given that the rainfall deficiency has been even more in North Karnataka (36.7%), Marathwada (39.4%) and Vidarbha (30.6%), which have large arhar-growing areas.

State wise Kharif Sowing of Tur 

State	Area Covered		% Change
	(Lakh Ha)
	2023	2022
Andhra Pradesh	0.064	0.075	-15
Arunachal Pradesh	0.008	0.008	0
Assam	0.033	0.03	10
Bihar	0.005	0.24	-98
Chhattisgarh	0.003	0.192	-98
Gujarat	0.232	0.39	-41
Haryana	0.013	0.003	333
Karnataka	2.217	5.156	-57
Madhya Pradesh	0.5	0.91	-45
Maharashtra	1.464	6.241	-77
Mizoram	0.003	0.003	0
Nagaland	0.007	0.007	0
Odisha	0.018	0.138	-87
Rajasthan	0.058	0.006	867
Tamil Nadu	0.022	0.03	-27
Telangana.	0.724	0.948	-24
Tripura	0.021	0.039	-46
Uttar Pradesh	0.563	0.578	-3
Uttarakhand	0.04	0.04	0
West Bengal	0.017	0.03	-43
Total	6.012	15.064	-60

Current status of Tur/Pulses in India

• The government has a total of 63,724 tonne of tur available with National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (Nafed) and around 60,000 tonne with National Cooperative Consumers' Federation of India (NCCF), the Centre’s pulses and vegetable procuring agency. The quantity available includes imported stocks of the pulse. 

• This comes at a time when pulses inflation is over 6% and sowing for the next kharif season has been negligible amid rainfall deficiency in key growing states such as Karnataka and Maharashtra

• Tur prices in the key mandis of Karnataka and Maharashtra have shot up 41% since January this year, and at present those are ranging at ₹10,000-10,300 a quintal in Karnataka’s Kalaburagi and Maharashtra’s Akola as compared to the minimum support price (MSP) of ₹6,600 per quintal.

• During the last 10 years, India’s production of pulses has gone up about 50%, from 18.3 mt to 27.5 mt because of an increase in production of Chana (chickpea) and moong (green gram). In the case of Tur, though India is the largest producer, accounting for over 80% of production, it is also the biggest consumer. The demand and supply gap are met through imports.

Market Updates

• Tur and urad have a share of over 70% in India’s pulses import basket, and Myanmar is a major producer of both. But on top of a dip in domestic production, Indian importers are reportedly hoarding tur in Myanmar.

• The department of consumer affairs has written to the ministry of external affairs “to ensure regular flow of imports from Myanmar, as India has a Memorandum of Understanding signed with the country to import 250,000 tonnes of urad and 100,000 tonnes of tur through private traders. The Indian embassy in Myanmar is also in talk with the local government and private traders. Production of tur (arhar or pigeon pea) in the ongoing season is estimated to be 2.5-2.8 million tonnes against a domestic consumption of 4.3-4.4 mt.

• Importers of tur and urad are not bringing their purchases from Myanmar to India and hoarding these pulses to book profit amid rising prices in the domestic market.

• After stock limits, India to import 12 lakh tonnes of tur dal to keep prices in check.

• Facing a sharp rise in tur dal prices amid lower production, India will import 12 lakh tonne of the pulse in the current fiscal, up by 35% from the last year, to boost domestic availability and contain price rise.

• The country has imported 6 lakh tonne of tur.

• Imports are undertaken from Myanmar and East African countries. The crop in East African countries will start arriving in August, so the domestic prices will cool down.

• Pigeon peas prices are being closely monitored by the Consumer Affairs Ministry.

• On the other hand, uncertainty continues regarding the stock of pigeon peas in Burma.

• The arrival of the new crop has started in Mozambique. And further production is likely to go up to 4.55.0 lakh tonnes. The crop will reach India by August-September.

• There have been reports of 50-60 percent sowing in Latur, Deglur and surrounding areas of Maharashtra. There is a possibility of delay in arrival of new crop due to delay of rains by 15 days.

• According to the traders, due to the increase in the prices of vegetables, improvement in the demand for tur daal can be seen in the future.

Rates in Major Mandis:

Commodity	State	Location	Variety	12-Jul-23	11-Jul-23
Tur	Maharashtra	Solapur		10300	10300
Tur	Maharashtra	Amravati		10000	10000
Tur	Karnataka	Gulbarga	Pink	10200	10000
Tur	Karnataka	Gulbarga	maruti	10050	10300
Tur	Maharashtra	Akola	Maruti New	10500	10550
Tur	Maharashtra	Akola	White	10300	10350
Tur	Maharashtra	Latur	Red/maruti	10150	10000
Tur	Maharashtra	Latur	Pink	10100	10000
Tur	Maharashtra	Latur	White	10200	10200