The Government on Saturday announced a 6-year mission to achieve self-sufficiency in pulses production.

Presenting the 2025-26 Budget, Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman said “Our Government will now launch a 6-year “Mission for Aatmanirbharta in Pulses” with a special focus on tur, urad and masoor. Central agencies (NAFED and NCCF) will be ready to procure these three pulses, as much as offered during the next four years from farmers who register with these agencies and enter into agreements.”

The Mission on pulses will place emphasis on the development and commercial availability of climate resilient seeds, enhancing protein content and increasing productivity as per the Budget. It will also focus on improving post-harvest storage and management, and assuring remunerative prices to the farmers.

India the largest producer, consumer and importer of pulses has seen its import dependency going up in the past couple of years as erratic climate had impacted the domestic production. The shortfall in domestic output had led to a surge in prices of pulses. In the first nine months of current financial year 2024-25, the pulses imports surged by over 53 per cent in value terms to $3.78 billion, up from $2.46 billion in the corresponding last year.

Record Imports

In volume terms, the pulses have imports almost doubled to a record 66.33 lakh tonnes during calendar 2024, from 33.07 lakh tonnes in the previous year. The imports during calendar 2024 account for around a fourth of the domestic consumption estimated around 270 lakh tonnes.

India’s pulses production as per the Government estimates rose from 163.23 lakh tonnes in 2015-17 to a high of 273.02 lakh tonnes during 2021-22 has since declined to 242.46 lakh tonnes during 2023-24 with the erratic climate impacting the output. Even in the kharif 2024-25 season, despite an increase in acreages, the production is estimated to be marginally lower at 69.54 lakh tonnes down from 69.74 lakh tonnes in the previous season. To augment the supplies the government has already extended the free import window for tur till March 21, 2026. The duty free import of yellow peas is permitted until February 20, 2025, while the chana imports remain duty free until March 31, 2025.