With over 45 national and international experts participated at the seminar on critical topics and attended by around 2000 delegates from 25 countries
India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA), the nodal body for India’s pulses trade and industry, successfully hosted the 3rd National Pulses Seminar on February 10 & 11, 2021. With over 45 national and international experts speaking at the seminar on critical topics and attended by around 2000 delegates from 25 countries. The seminar coincided with the 5th World Pulses Day celebrated on February 10, 2021.
Jitu Bheda, Chairman – IPGA in his welcome address said, “At IPGA, pulses are not just a product; they are also a promise of nutritional security for a significantly vegetarian nation such as ours. Hence, as India’s leading knowledge hub and think tank on the pulses and grains industry, our focus extends way beyond the market dynamics, and encompasses the value pulses bring to our health, society, and country.”
Narendra Singh Tomar, Hon’ble Union Minister, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare; Ministry of Rural Development; Panchayati Raj; and Ministry of Food Processing Industries in his keynote address said, “Our domestic production of pulses has risen by 23 per cent between 2017 and 2019 due to the hard work and efforts of farmers and scientists. The efforts are now in progress to reach a production level of 320 million tons by the year 2030.”
Raosaheb Patil Danve, Hon’ble Minister of State, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution in his keynote address said, Pulses are also an important crop for farmers. Such a seminar has facilitated important discussion on various aspects of pulses and will benefit the entire value chain of pulses production.”
Leena Nandan, Secretary – Consumer Affairs in her address said, “India is the largest producer and consumer of pulses in the world. However, the domestic production is not sufficient to meet the needs of our growing population, to meet the diverse food preferences across the country and we need to rely on imports to bridge the demand-supply gap. In the first phase of the PMGKAY, whatever were the preferences of the states and they were incredibly diverse, all those pulses were provided to those state governments, and in the next phase of the programme, which was from July to November 2020, it was the whole chana that was distributed to all the states. So, this was possible only because of the large buffer stock of pulses we had with us, and we propose to continue to maintain this buffer stock.”
Adv. Vijay Sardana – Techno-Legal and Policy Expert, Advocate & Arbitrator, Agri-Food Value Chain and Trade Policy Expert said,“Today, the MSP formula of cost-plus fifty percent, based on M S Swaminathan committee’s widely disseminated recommendation, lacks clarity. The formula does not factor productivity and quality. It means that if there is any farmer achieving high productivity and his cost of production is low, he should technically get less MSP”.
