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Thursday / November 7. 2024

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HomePosts Tagged "Rohit Kumar Singh"
AgroPolicy, Foodgrains, India, Pulses

Centre issues advisory for mandatory stock disclosure of Masur (lentil) with immediate effect

The Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of India has issued an advisory for mandatory stock disclosure of Masur (lentil) with immediate effect. All the stakeholders should mandatorily disclose their Masur stock on the stock disclosure portal (https://fcainfoweb.nic.in/psp) managed by the department every Friday. Any undisclosed stock if found, will be considered as hoarding and suitable action under the EC Act would be initiated.

Rohit Kumar Singh, Secretary of, the Department of Consumer Affairs, during the weekly price review meeting, instructed the department to broad-based the lentil buffer procurement. The objective is to procure available stocks at prices around the MSP. This came at a time when NAFED and NCCF had to suspend their tenders to purchase imported lentils due to exorbitantly high bids received from few suppliers amid hints of cartelisation.

Secretary, of Consumer Affairs, stated that at a time when lentil import flow increases from Canada and Tur imports from African countries, few players are trying to manipulate the market against the interest of the consumers and the Nation. The government is watching the developments very closely and will initiate stringent measures to get the stock released into the market so that the availability of all pulses at reasonable prices during the festival season is ensured.

He further added that judiciously balancing the interest of the farmers vis-à-vis the consumers is paramount and that the Department will not hesitate to initiate stern action against those trying to hurt the interest of Indian consumers and farmers in an unscrupulous manner.

Centre issues advisory for mandatory stock disclosure

AgroPolicy, Agrotech, Horticulture, Supply Chain, Sustainability

Students, Research Scholars, Faculty Members, Industry, Start-ups, MSMEs, LLPs, and Professionals urged to participate in the hackathon

Rohit Kumar Singh Secretary, of the Department of Consumer Affairs, announced a Tomato Grand Challenge (TGC) hackathon to invite innovative ideas at various levels of the tomato value chain to ensure the availability of tomatoes to consumers at affordable prices and help tomato farmers get value for the produce. TGC has been formulated by the Department of Consumer Affairs in collaboration with M/o Education (Innovation Cell).

The Grand Challenge invites ideas on comprehensive and focused area interventions in the tomato value chain – from cropping and market insights for the farmers, appropriate cultivars (OP varieties or hybrids) with higher shelf-life of the fruits for the fresh marker, cultivars specifically suitable for processing, value-addition through interventions that can increase shelf-life, improve transportation of fresh and processing products, innovative packaging and storage.

The entry of participants for the TGC are invited under two tracks, namely,  Students, Research Scholars and Faculty Members and Industry individuals, Indian start-ups, Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) and Professionals. The winning ideas will be evaluated by Experts followed by prototype development and field implementation for ensuring usability/scalability on a large scale and price of the product. Interested participants can apply on the portal: https://doca.gov.in/gtc/index.php

Tomato is produced almost in all the states in India, though in varying quantities. Maximum production is in southern and western regions of India, contributing 56 per cent -58 per cent of all India production. Southern and Western regions being surplus states feed to other markets depending on production seasons.

The production seasons are also different across regions. The peak harvesting season occurred from December to February. The periods from July-August and October-November are the lean production months of tomatoes. July coinciding with the monsoon season adds to further challenges related to distribution and increased transit losses adding to price rise.

The cycle of planting and harvesting seasons and variation across regions are primarily responsible for price seasonality in Tomato. Apart from the normal price seasonality, temporary supply chain disruptions and crop damage due to adverse weather conditions etc. often led to sudden spikes in prices. Conversely, glut in the production at local levels have also led to a dip in prices causing huge loss to the farmers.

Students, Research Scholars, Faculty Members, Industry, Start-ups,

AgroPolicy, India, Pulses, Supply Chain

Centre directs pulses importers to declare stocks availability in a routine transparent manner.

Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, Rohit Kumar Singh directed major pulses importers to ensure that all stocks available with them are declared in a transparent manner regularly.  They were advised not to hold back any stock which may disrupt availability of pulses in the domestic market. The Government has stepped up its efforts to monitor stock disclosures of pulses by millers, stockists, traders, importers, etc. to ensure that prices of Tur are normalised and the availability and affordability of Tur is ensured in the domestic market.

Meanwhile, the Committee under the Chairmanship of Additional Secretary Nidhi Khare took a meeting with all the States/UTs today wherein they were requested to explore all the sources to increase the number of registered entities in Stock Declaration Portal including FSSAI licensees, APMC registered traders, GST Registered traders of pulses etc.  To cross validate the stocks declared, States were also requested to get information from warehouse service providers, both public and private.  The need to monitor stocks of imported pulses at custom bonded warehouses was also emphasized, to ensure their timely release from Ports.

The Department is also planning to hold interaction with all stakeholders across value chain to ensure availability and affordability of pulses for consumers. The Pulses Associations and Importers have assured wholehearted cooperation in disclosing the stocks in a transparent manner.

Centre directs pulses importers to declare stocks

India, Pulses, Webinar

India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA), the apex body of India’s pulses and grains industry and trade along with USA Dry Peas and Lentil Council (USADPALC) jointly hosted a webinar on the ‘Outlook of kharif pulses crop production 2022 and the USA crop update’ under the aegis of the ‘IPGA Knowledge Series. The webinar aimed at giving an in-depth insight into this year’s kharif pulses crop in terms of its production and future outlook of tur, urad and moong. It also highlighted its yield, impact on prices, import-dependence as well as a detailed USA crop update.

The keynote address was delivered by Rohit Kumar Singh, secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Government of India. He said, “Theres likely an impact of uneven rainfall on the kharif pulses crop production. The outlook is not very positive and the erratic rains have been posing a challenge. The Department of Consumer Affairs takes cognisance of the situation in the field, both in terms of availability and prices. Accordingly, interventions are undertaken to keep the pulses prices under control.”

While giving the opening remarks, Bimal Kothari, chairman, IPGA, said, “IPGA has set out a transformation agenda for the industry and trade. In order to pursue this single-mindedly, we are working closely with the government, policy-makers and our foreign partner associations like USA Dry Pea and Lentils Council.”

The webinar had eminent speakers from across India and USA including Rahul Chauhan, director, Igrain India; Pritesh Nandu, partner, Himtalal Hirji & Co; Ritesh Mittal, director, Pan Shree Delhi; Jeff Rumney, vice president, marketing, USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council; Sachin Khurana, India representative, USA Dry Pea and Lentil and Lalit Bangar, chartered accountant.

The web conference witnessed discussions around the production of African tur crop in east African countries, production of Myanmar tur crop and overall outlook on demand and supply of tur in India. It was attended by over 400 trade stakeholders across India and USA.

India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA), the apex