Context: There are two agricultural commodities in which India is significantly import-dependent: Edible oil and pulses. Imports of oilseeds has soared, while imports of pulses has reduced to a greater extend.
Current status of oilseeds and pulses imports:
Above charts show that imports of vegetable oil has soared three times in last decade while in case of imports of pulses it has half in last five years (both in quantity and value terms).
Why this trend?
- The reduction in pulses imports have come essentially on the back of higher domestic production. According to the Agriculture Ministry, India’s pulses output has increased from 19.26 mt in 2013-14 to 27.50 mt in 2022-23.
- Aatmanirbharta (self-sufficiency) on pulses imports has reached at 90% while on oilseeds it has remained at 40%.
3. It can be seen that imports of two items have recorded dramatic drops: Yellow/white peas (matar) and chickpea (chana). At their height, yearly imports of the former topped 3 mt and the latter one mt. Those have since plunged to negligible levels. This is due to falling imports from Ukraine, Russia and Canada.
4. The boost to chana production came from two key government measures, incentivizing Indian farmers to expand area under the pulses crop grown during the rabi (winter-spring) season. The first is the levy of a 60% import duty on chana since March 2018. The second intervention has been government procurement at minimum support prices (MSP).
Concerns ahead:
- The erratic production of most non-chana pulses has meant no let up in their imports. Arhar imports – from Mozambique, Myanmar, Tanzania, Malawi and Sudan – hit a record 0.9 mt in 2022-23.
- Equally interesting is masoor (red lentil), whose imports from Canada and Australia have crossed 1.1-1.2 mt in some years.
- Looking ahead, a subnormal monsoon can potentially lead to inflation in pulses.
Strategies to raise pulses production further
1. Increasing Area under Pulses: The total area under pulses in India is very small and there is an urgent need to increase it. In recent years, a number of minor and medium irrigation projects are coming up in the region and irrigation facilities are becoming increasingly available.
2. Balance Fertilization: The sloppy undulating land and heavy precipitation receiving area in India, during the kharif season, the clay particles of the soil have been washed out and the soils have been rendered poor in fertility. Therefore, for getting economic yields, the pulse crops also need manure and fertilizers in adequate quantity.
3. Developing High Yielding Varieties: Because of the peculiar agro-climatic conditions in the country, cultivation of pulses is done on a limited scale using traditional pulse varieties. The production of pulses could be increased, if high yielding, superior varieties are made available to the farmers. The moisture retention capacity of the soil, in general is very low and since rainy days are limited the varieties maturing in less than 120 days would be essential.
4. Use of Specific Rhizobium Culture: Pulses in general, have an ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen in the soil with the help of nodule forming rhizobium bacteria in their roots. The lateritic soils are more or less of acidic in nature.
5. Timely Plant Protection Measures: Pulses mostly grown by farmers are without any plant protection measures. Therefore the yields are very low. Crops like horse gram and cowpea suffers from yellow mosaic which is a virus disease and also attacked by leaf eating caterpillars. All the pest and diseases greatly reduce pulses yields. Therefore, it is very essential to provide need based plant protection measures in order to obtain higher yields.
6. Mixed Cropping with Other Crops: Inter cropping of pulses with other crops helps to increase net income per season from the same piece of land by increasing the total production and also provide insurance against failure of the main crop. Beside, pulses crop fixed the atmospheric nitrogen in the soil and build up nitrogen status of the soil at no extra cost. This nitrogen is available to other non-leguminous crop.
7. Grazing Management: During rabi hot weather season the farmers face the problem of stray cattle in cultivating pulses crops. To overcome this problem it is suggested to encourage the farmers in taking up collective growing of pulses in bigger blocks. This enables the farmers to reduce the cost on providing protection to the crop from stray cattle either by watching or by fencing the block area.
8. Supply of Good Quality Seeds: Supply of pure and good quality seed of different varieties is another constraint that is observed in pulses cultivation .Therefore, arrangements need to be made for production of quality seed in sufficient quantities by the agriculture universities and other seed producing agencies.
9. Financial Help: The per hectare grain yields of pulses being low, their cultivation was not very remunerative and therefore, it was not given a serious thought, so for. Thus in the past, cultivation of pulses suffered to a considerable extent.
10. Educating Farmers in Modern Technology of Pulse Production: In order to boost up the production of pulses in the India, extensive participation of the farmers in the cultivation of different pulses by adopting improved technology is very essential.
Oilseeds in India
Oilseed crops are the second most important determinant of agricultural economy, next only to cereals within the segment of field crops. The self-sufficiency in oilseeds attained through “Yellow Revolution” during early 1990’s, could not be sustained beyond a short period.Despite being the fifth largest oilseed crop producing country in the world, India is also one of the largest importers of vegetable oils today.
There is a spurt in the vegetable oil consumption in recent years in respect of both edible as well as industrial usages. The demand-supply gap in the edible oils has necessitated huge imports accounting for 60 per cent of the country’s requirement (2016-17: import 14.01 million tonnes; cost Rs. 73,048 crore).
Despite commendable performance of domestic oilseeds production of the nine annual crops (Compound Annual Growth Rate of 3.89%), it could not match with the galloping rate of per capita demand (~6%) due to enhanced per capita consumption (18 kg oil per annum) driven by increase in population and enhanced per capita income.
Sources of vegetable oils
1. Primary sources of vegetable oil:
- Nine oilseeds are the primary source of vegetable oils in the country, which are largely grown under rainfed condition over an area of about 26 million ha. Among these, soybean (34%), groundnut (27%), rapeseed & mustard (27%) contributes to more than 88% of total oilseeds production and >80% of vegetable oil with major share of mustard (35%), soybean (23%) and groundnut (25%).
- Andhra Pradesh (groundnut) & Gujarat (groundnut), Haryana(Mustard), Karnataka(G.nut), M.P(Soybean), Maharashtra(Soybean), Rajasthan (Mustard & Soybean), Tamil Nadu(G. nut), U.P(Mustard), West Bengal(Mustard) contributing more than 95% of total oilseed production in the country. India is producing about 7-8 million tonnes of vegetable oils from primary sources
2. Secondary sources of vegetable oil: In addition to nine oilseeds, 03 million tonnes of vegetable oil is being harnessed from secondary sources like cottonseed, rice bran, coconut, Tree Borne Oilseeds (TBOs) and Oil Palm. Oil palm which is categorized as secondary sources of oils should be included as primary source as it gives the highest per ha oil yield (4-5t/ha).
Area, Production and Yield of Oilseed Crops in India
In India, annual oilseeds are cultivated over 26.67 million hectares of area producing. Majority of the oilseeds are cultivated under rainfed ecosystem (70%). The area under oilseeds has experienced a deceleration in general, and this is due to their relative lower profitability against competing crops like maize, cotton, chickpea etc., under the prevailing crop growing and marketing situations.
India is heavily dependent on imports to meet its edible oil requirements and largest importer of vegetable oils in the world (15% share) followed by China & USA. Of imported edible oils , share of palm oil is about 60% followed by soybean oil with a share of 25% and sunflower (12%).