Government to buy 40,000 tonnes of pulses from farmers to contain price hike

Government to buy 40,000 tonnes of pulses from farmers to contain price hike

NewsGram Staff Writer

New Delhi: In a bid to create a buffer stock for containing price hike, the central government on Friday decided to purchase 40,000 tonnes of pulses from farmers to create a buffer stock for controlling prices. Prices have soared up to Rs 190 per kg in the retail markets.

"We have decided to create a buffer stock of 40,000 tonnes of tur and urad dals. Through Nafed (National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Fedration of India), we will buy 30,000 tonnes of tur and 10,000 tonnes of urad at market rate from farmers," Minister of State for Agriculture Sanjeev Kumar Balyan told reporters on Friday.

"Nafed would start procuring kharif pulses from the next month onward," he added.

In order to give relief to common man, he said the Kendriya Bhandar and Mother Dairy's Safal outlets would sell imported tur at Rs 120-130 per kg in Delhi. Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have also started selling imported lentils.

Cooperative Nafed will be given funds from the Price Stabilization Fund (PSF), managed by the agriculture ministry, to buy pulses. The buffer stock will be offloaded to provide relief to consumers from rising prices, Balyan said.

On imports, he said the government through state-owned MMTC has imported 5,000 tonnes of tur and will soon finalize the contracts for importing an additional 2,000 tonnes. He said there is shortage of pulses in the global market and prices too have increased.

"The price increase in the domestic market is mainly due to shortage in production owing to poor rainfall. Private traders are taking advantage of this situation," he said.

Retail prices of tur dal have risen up to Rs190 per kg in most parts of the country, from Rs 85 per kg a year ago. Similarly, urad dal prices rose to nearly Rs 190 per kg from Rs 100 per kg in the year-ago period.

(With inputs from IANS)

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