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Kothari takes over as the third chairman of the association

India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA) announced the appointment of Bimal Kothari as the new Chairman with immediate effect while Jitu Bheda steps down as the current chairman. Bheda was appointed the Chairman of IPGA on 25th April 2018. Kothari takes over as the third chairman of the association after Pravin Dongre and Bheda. Kothari, one of the key founding members of the association, has been the Vice-Chairman of IPGA since 2011 when it was formed.

Kothari said, “At the helm of affairs, I will ensure that we deal with these changes in thoughtful and innovative ways to achieve larger goals which will benefit all stakeholders for years to come. I look forward to the continued guidance and support of all the committee members. A lot has been done and there is still a lot to do under IPGA. There are programmes to be conducted, issues to be addressed, and challenges to overcome.”

Kothari takes over as the third chairman

AgroPolicy, Pulses

According to Bimal Kothari, Vice Chairman, IPGA, the notification will certainly control the prices to a certain extent

IPGA has welcomed the government’s move of extending open general license (OGL) on Tur and Urad till March 31, 2023. It’s a well-planned decision which will benefit the trade and industry as well as consumers. IPGA has been in constant dialogue with the various ministries to recommend a consistent and stable import policy and is glad that this notification for 12 months is a step in that direction.

Bimal Kothari, Vice Chairman, India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA) says, “We have imported over 22.6 lakh tonne of pulses in 2020 – 2021. We still need about 10-12 per cent pulses imports for increased consumption. There were concerns over the scarcity of tur and urad which would have impacted the prices. The current prices of tur and urad are above MSP. This notification will certainly control the prices to a certain extent. Production of tur is around 40,00,000 tonne and NAFED does not have the stock. Tur is selling above MSP price around Rs 67 – 68. We were expecting the prices to increase but since the imports are opened up, we will be able to import around 2 – 2.5 lakh tonne of tur from Myanmar. Additionally, the tur crops from Africa will harvest in August 2022 and the production is likely to be very good. This will supplement our demand in September to November which is the festival period in India as our crop will harvest only around December and would have created shortage.”

Kothari added, “There is no crop of urad before September in India and also there’s been an increase in prices of urad by Rs 7-8 in the last one month. Burma is the only supplier of urad to India and they have harvested a very good crop and the production is expected around 7-8 lakh tons. India imports urad from Myanmar regularly to meet the gap between demand and supply. Hence the extension of OGL is a strategic move by the government and will help stabilising the supply and prices.”

According to Bimal Kothari, Vice Chairman, IPGA,

AgroPolicy, Pulses, Trade

Requests the Ministry of Commerce & Industry to withdraw the notification as it will bring hardship to importers

Government of India under the Gazette Notification dated 11 February 2022, restricted the import of moong beans with immediate effect. Previously, the import of moong beans was allowed under the ‘free’ category subject to the Bill of Lading being issued by March 31, 2022, and customs clearance by June 30, 2022.

Bimal Kothari, Vice Chairman, India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA) on this recent notification said, “Based on the “free” import policy, Indian market participants entered into binding contractual obligations for the import of Moong from other countries into India. It was barely two months ago, as of 20th December 2021, that the Government of India allowed the ‘free’ import of Moong and has now changed that policy overnight. On behalf of all market players, we request the Government of India to reconsider the Notification Restricting Import and reinstate the ‘free’ import policy.

According to Kothari, frequent policy changes create immense financial hardship for Indian market participants and uncertainty for international counterparts. Such changes are counterproductive for international trade and inconsistent with India’s “Ease of Doing Business” objective.

He said, “Consequently, we request the government to provide reasonable advance notice to the market before introducing new policies that can hamper existing trade commitments. We are making representation to the Ministry of Commerce & Industry to withdraw this notification, as Indian importers have contracted cargoes that are presently in transit to Indian ports. If these cargoes are not allowed to be imported, it will create an immense financial hardship to Indian companies and chaos in the market.”

Requests the Ministry of Commerce & Industry

Finance, Seeds

The finance minister’s announcement to use Kisan drones to map the production is indeed a very good step

The Finance Minister of India has announced various steps particularly focusing on technology in agriculture, which is a very progressive move, according to Bimal Kothari, Vice-chairman, India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA).

He adds, “Crops like pulses and edible oil seeds require special attention because India has been importing them. Though the production of pulses has been given a boost, still, we are importing about 2.5 million tonne of pulses annually. Also, the demand for pulses is increasing to one million tonne annually, so by 2030, India’s demand will be around 30 to 33 million tonne of pulses. Therefore, we need to enhance the production and not just focus on increasing the minimum support price (MSP) every time as it is going to hurt the consumers in the long run. Our Prime Minister’s vision to double farmers’ income can be attained by increasing productivity. As of now, our productivity is low in comparison to international levels.”

According to him, the finance minister’s announcement to use Kisan drones to map the production is indeed a very good step. This will allow to estimate the production and understand the crop losses accurately. It will also be very useful in spraying insecticides. Not just the farmers but even the government will benefit from this drone scheme.

However, he opined that the measures announced for startups in the budget will encourage Agri-tech although this is at a very initial stage as there is still a lot that needs to be done. The contribution of the farming sector in GDP is very less hence we need to bring in more value addition.

Kothari added, “This will happen only if we stop relying on sales of raw materials and use these raw materials to sell value-added products. In the pulses sector, a lot of development is being done in the western world in terms of alternative protein or plant-based meat which is now being introduced in India as well. Therefore, if advanced technologies are brought and set up in India it will not only help the trade and industries but will also help the farmers immensely. As value addition will have an impact on the farming sector. Also, the finance minister has announced the allowance of Rs 2,37,000 crores for procurement of MSP.”

He further mentioned that the government is doing a lot of programmes for wheat and rice which is going on for decades but now more focus is required on oilseeds and pulses. In the pulses sector, there has been procurement in the last three to four years, but this needs to be more channelised. So, the government can do a market intervention to control the prices when the production gets affected due to unavoidable events. This is more important in the pulses sector because India’s pulses production is far better than pulses production in other countries. Therefore, if India faces any shortage of pulses, it won’t be possible to make it up through international markets as well.

The finance minister’s announcement to use Kisan