Over 700 stakeholders from over 20 countries attended the webinar
India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA), the nodal body for India’s pulses trade and industry, recently hosted a webinar on Kharif Sowing Overview under the aegis of the ‘IPGA Knowledge Series’ to get an in-depth insight into this year’s sowing pattern and future outlook for pulse crops of Kharif season, its yield, impact on prices and import-dependence. The webinar was attended by over 700 trade stakeholders from over 20 countries.
During the webinar, panellists covered key aspects such as the impact of change in India’s import policy, consumption patterns, the hindrances to the export of pulses given the container shortage and surge in freight charges, among others.
Bimal Kothari, Vice Chairman, IPGA in his opening remarks, said, “Even as monsoons kicked off at a good pace, its progress halted across central India around the third week of June, causing a three-week delay in rainfall during the crucial Kharif sowing season. IPGA’s webinar saw a host of industry experts who helped understand the Kharif sowing pattern, and the impact of monsoon on recovery.”
Dr DS Pai, Head – Climate Research and Services, India Meteorological Department speaking about the performance of monsoon this year, said, “Rainfall was relatively good in June – remaining above normal around 10 per cent across most parts of the country. In July, the north-eastern part of the country saw a major deficiency – 7 per cent below normal. However, the situation began worsening in August due to which eastern part of central India, as well as parts of Western India, had a severe rainfall deficiency.”
Nirav Desai, Managing Partner, GGN Research, said, “Even though monsoon started early, the abrupt gap between June 15 and July 15 curtailed expansion of the crop area, with an overall rainfall deficit of 27.2 per cent. As Rajasthan and Gujarat witnessed a dry spell, it may cause an overall crop deficit of up to 25 per cent in Rajasthan.”
B Krishna Murthy, MD, Four P International, detailing the scenario of Urad said, “India has been steadily improving its crop size of growth over the last few years to meet domestic requirements. For example, India produced 1.7 million tonnes in 2010, which went up to nearly 3 million tonnes in 2018-19 and the crop shortfalls are met by imports from Myanmar.”
Krishna Murthy further said, “At the beginning of Kharif season 2020, India had a carry-on stock of an estimated 4 lakh tonnes, which was being held by the government and procurement agencies as well as the private traders. Our sowing was good at 37 lakh hectares and the monsoon has neither been abnormally low, nor abnormally high. However, the situation depends on how the balance 33 days of monsoon season fare.”
Nitin Kalantri, CEO, Kalantry Food Products, in his presentation on Tur said, “Failure of the crop or less sowing and consequent production deficit due to an erratic rainfall pattern will cause a surge in import of the Kharif crops in days to come. This will in turn cause inflation in the price of pulses. India needs to be more dependent on Indian farmers, we have to be Atmanirbhar so that we don’t import too many quantities and going forward, the prices would not rise.”
Punit Bachhawat, MD, Prakash Agro Mills, in his presentation on moong said, “With a deficit rainfall despite an early start, the maximum support price (MSP) for Moong has been increased in India giving much-needed relief to farmers in Maharashtra and Karnataka. While a timely monsoon did give hopes of a bumper crop, a major interval in rains and erratic patterns spoiled hopes for a good crop of moong.”
According to Mr Bachhawat, a rainfall deficiency is expected to hurt prices further. He said, “With a decline in crop production in Rajasthan, prices will start moving up despite expectations of the bumper crop from MP and fresh arrival from Karnataka and Maharashtra. Imports from Tanzania and other parts of Africa will surge. On the other hand, with an increase in minimum support price (MSP), farmers will be interested in selling their goods to profit-making agencies and government bodies leaving little stock for the market and in turn pushing the prices up.”
