Pulses production in India-Will it ever meet the domestic demand?

Pulses or legumes constitute a major component in the diet of Indian population which is predominantly vegetarian in their eating habits both by tradition as well as due to economic compulsions. Though most can eat animal based foods like meat, fish and egg, due to limited income per family they cannot buy these expensive food items at the prevailing market prices. Milk is another protein source which is produced in India adequately but here also the average price of Rs 30 per liter makes its proteins much more costlier than that in pulses. Most pulses have protein contents of 23-25% on dry weight basis while in fluid milk it is only about 5% on fresh weight basis. In the case of meat it works out to a protein content of about 21-25%. Cost wise the costs per kg of protein from these three sources are Rs 300 from pulses, Rs 600 from milk and Rs 1000 from meat. No wonder people will less per capita income are compelled to to opt for plant proteins to meet their health need of 50 gm of proteins per person every day. 

Some pundits feel that plant proteins are not of high quality when measured on scales of Protein Efficiency Ratio (PER) or Biological Value (BV), they being deficient in one or more of essential amino acids that human body cannot make in vivo. Probably this may be true but what one can do if he cannot afford high quality protein containing foods like meat? This is where food and nutrition science come to their help. Nature has a diversified source of plants containing proteins of different amino acid profile and therefore by judicial blending of different pulses and cereals one can get all the needed amino acids readily from such mixed diets. If Net Protein Utilization (NPU) another yardstick to measure protein quality is taken into consideration, egg ranks high with 90% plus mark followed by milk (80% plus), meat (65% plus), legumes (50-60%) and whole grains (50-60%). Two of the three limiting amino acids that humans cannot make in vivo viz Methionine is low in pulses and Lysine is low in grains. Considering that in a composite diet consumed by a vegetarian both legumes and grains are present and therefore the over all protein quality does not suffer from a nutritional perspective.

India being the largest producer and consumer of pulses has always been short of this vital commodity, forcing it to resort to large scale imports, some times almost 25% of its need being met by imports from countries like Canada, Myanmar, Australia, Russia and USA. According to government sources the country was supposed to have produced during 2013-2014 about 19 million tons (mt) with import of about 1.4 mt supplementing the availability to meet the demand of 21 mt within the country. What is disappointing is that the production of pulses has been stagnating during the last 5 years hovering between 18 and 19 mt annually. Why the country has not been able to raise production is a complex question and the international prices of these pulses fluctuate widely depending on Indian imports. In 2009-10 and 2012-13 the average imports were around 3.5 mt per year. Only in 2013-14 the imports saw a dramatic dip with only 1.4 mt being sourced from outside. Interestingly government offers decent minimum support prices (MSP)  to pulses ranging from Rs 2950 to Rs 4500 per quintal depending on which pulse one is talking about.

In the domestic demand situation Bengal gram or Chick Pea is at the top consumption being 9.7 mt followed by Tur at 3.3 mt, Moong and Urad at 3 mt each. Others account for another 3 mt. Interestingly Dry Peas account for the highest import being about 1.33 mt followed by Masur at 0.71 mt, Pigeon Pea at 0.47 mt and Chick Pea at 0.28 mt. Though in the strict sense Dry Pea is not a legume as is being understood by many, it is used in fresh or frozen form as a vegetable; nonetheless it does belong to leguminous family. Considering that India is the largest importer of edible oils, almost 3 times the quantity of legumes imported, government is justified in persisting with out sourcing pulses because of the health implications of pulses in Indian diet. However not taking enough efforts in achieving self sufficiency in pulses production cannot be condoned. Besides, neglecting the role of pulses in the food security scheme of the country can be disastrous in the long run for the health of Indian population, especially that segment having low per capita income.  

Talking about prices of various pulses within the country there does not appear to be any valid basis for some of the popular pulses being priced exorbitantly high making it beyond the reach of common man who either has to reduce pulse consumption suiting his purse or avoid buying them altogether. Same goes for edible oils also which are very highly priced, some of them costing as high as Rs 200 per liter to the consumer at the retail level. One of the demands made by pulse growers' community is that pulses like Tur and Chick pea must be included in the PDS food basket, priced reasonably, for the low income groups to get access to them. Manipulation of prices of edible oils and pulses is rampant with hording becoming a standard practice in the face of a soft governance system in the country. Will the government at least wake up now and "catch the bull by its horn" to give succor and relief to the much harried citizen?

The overwhelming obsession with cereals and sugarcane by the government is not understandable considering the astronomical import costs incurred while outsourcing pulses and edible oils draining billions of dollars of foreign exchange year after year causing hemorrhage to the public exchequer. As a part of National Food and Agricultural Policy of the country, oil seeds and pulses deserve priority considerations and all other crops, except cereals must play a sub-ordinate role. What ever be the cost there is an urgent need to prioritize allocation of resources from the government to raise all the food needs of the population qualitatively and quantitatively in the coming years. Government must be ruthless in restricting cultivation of non-essential crops so that adequate fertile land and inputs are diverted to the three crops viz, cereals, pulses and oil seeds. 

V.H.POTTY

http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com 

SELF RELIANCE IN EDIBLE OIL AND PULSES-INDIA'S WOES!

Edible oils and pulses play a significant role in the diets in India where the population by nature or due economic compulsions are predominantly herbivores. Especially critical is the place of pulses in the diet as they provide a major part of the proteins needed for balanced nutrition. In contrast oils constitute the energy source, supposed to contribute about 30% of biological energy in the diet. On an average humans need about 50-60 gm each of oils and pulses to meet the body needs and this requirement can be met from a variety of sources including pulses, oil seeds and extracted oils from seeds like groundnut, oil palm, soybean, cotton seed, mustard, sesame and others like maize germ, rice bran etc. While India produces about 20 million tons(mt) of pulses annually, its edible oil production is stagnating at around 8 mt since 2003-2004.

In spite of the critical shortage of the above two food crops ever since independence, not much could be done in raising their production due to many reasons. Historically India always placed higher priority to production of cereals like rice and wheat through attractive minimum support price policies till the year 2000 and farmers were always attracted by such incentives to cultivate more cereals than pulses and oil seeds. Though the MSP levels were raised 92% in the case of mustard to 212% for sunflower between 2001 to 2013, the production of these two crops still languished and the country is at a loss as to what has to be done to raise their production. The history of repeated imports of edible oils and pulses continue causing a hemorrhagic out flow of foreign exchange year after year to prevent price escalation in the domestic market.

While in 200-2001, the proportion of imports of oils was less than 50% ( 5 mt out of 11 mt) of the country's need, to day the corresponding figure stands at a whopping 60%( 10.5 mt out of 18 mt)! Domestic production increased by just 40% during these 13 years while imports more than doubled. . While annual per capita use of oil is about 92 kg in Argentina, 60 kg in the EU countries, 55 kg in America, in India it is a paltry 15 kg. The world average is more than 25 kg, almost double that in India. Of course nutritionists may argue that low consumption of fat is a win-win situation as high fat consumption is implicated in many disease like CVD, Hypertension, Diabetes and Obesity!  Probably if the present spurt in oil prices with most oils being priced between Rs 100-200 per liter, how far demand for this culinary ingredient will be sustained is a million dollar question. However market optimists expect that by 2020 the demand may reach about 23 mt from the current availability of 18 mt. How the government is going to react to this situation remains to be seen.

Current pulse production of 20 mt is supplemented by import of about 4 mt and the daily per capita availability works out to about 70 gm though the National Sample Survey says that the consumption is only about less than 30 gm a day. Why this discrepancy is not clear but there is a trend which clearly shows that consumption of pulses is coming down significantly over the years and an Indian citizen was much better off in the first decade after independence compared to present day India as far as pulse consumption is concerned. In contrast per capita availability cereals is almost same to day compared to 60 years ago hovering around 450 gm a day. Whether this justifies successive government efforts in boosting cereal production at any cost is matter of debate. Interestingly in spite of imports of about 4 mt of pulses into India the market prices of pulses still rule very high, unaffordable to many low income citizens to buy the minimum need as per the nutritional guide.

The above convoluted picture raises another important question regarding the priority accorded to sugarcane in this country which is heavily steeped in politics, most powerful politicians being products of the sugar lobby which have tremendous influence on the thinking and working of the governments at the Center as well as in some states. As a nation it is time that the role of sugarcane in the agricultural landscape of the country is revisited. 25 mt of sugar produced from sugarcane cultivated in 53 million hectares of country's precious land can be considered laudable from agricultural achievement view but how relevant is this to the food needs of the country? Sugar is considered a white poison in the lives of people though it adds considerable pleasure to the human palate and its by product Alcohol inebriates the consumer! From nutrition angle sugar does not serve any purpose in the diet and its calories are no more superior to that contributed by starch contained in all cereals, pulses, root crops, fruits and many vegetables. Why not restrict the sugarcane cultivation through disincentives and punitive measures and divert the land for raising pulses and oil seeds in the national interest? If the sugarcane cultivation is reduced by 50% the resulting spared land can increase the present production of oil seeds and pulses very significantly.

To day the area under cultivation for oil seeds and pulses is 30 million hectares (mha) and 25 mha respectively. Imagine the impact of diverting 50% of the land currently under sugarcane (about 27 mha) to production of these vital crops on the economic health as well the human health of the population in the country. All it needs is to protect the income of farmers who are cultivating sugarcane at present which will be persuasive enough for them to switch over.to oil seeds and pulses.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

FOOD SECURITY ACT-THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN!

One of the most populist schemes churned out by the UPA government during its tenure has been the distribution of government stored food grains practically free to almost two thirds of the population. This scheme was started in a haste without studying in depth the consequences of such pampering of the public on the economic, social and life styles of the beneficiaries who number about 700 million. The subsidy outgo was estimated at 1.3 lakh crore annually which has to come from the general kitty, contributed by the honest taxpayers of the country. No thought was ever given whether such large scale diversion of development funds can be sustained year after year by the succeeding governments that may come to power in future.

One of the consequences already being felt during the operation of this scheme has been uncontrollable food inflation that is eating into the budget of every family in the country. While supply of highly subsidized grains does ensure "survival"of many people by keeping hunger away from their door steps, practically cost of every other thing in life has become intolerably high. It is like taking away with one hand what is given with the other hand! The warped thinking of political shenanigans who came out with the doling scheme is that all it requires for a decent life is cereals like rice and wheat! They seem to have ignored the nutrition security of these beneficiaries by not including pulses, fruits, vegetables or milk in the basket of subsidized "foods"! Is the nation heading for a future where people are destined to stunted growth and less than optimum mental health?

What impact the new scheme will have on the labor market in the country also has been ignored. To day the country is suffering from gross shortage of workers to do any chores, be it farming, manufacturing or civil construction. If food is provided practically free, what incentive people will have to go to work? If this is a correct reading of the labor market, the country may be in an unenviable position of negative growth in almost all spheres of economic activity with grave consequences. The ever escalating cost of getting labor is telling on every front. During the last few years labor has been demanding higher wages but this took a dramatic turn during the last one year with labor cost rising as much as 25-30% in states like Kerala. 

Why was there any necessity to ignore the well developed PDS which was working in many states with reasonable efficiency while propagating the present food security scheme? Many believe that this is largely a ploy to garner votes in the coming election for the present ruling dispensation by stealing the credit from a few states which have been operating their PDS with high management efficiency. It is true that in a few states PDS has not been working as expected and pilferage of rains was reported to be high. But proper reforms of the system and application of modern management technology should have been attempted. 

The quality of food grains supplied under the new food security scheme might not be good as in the case of PDS supplies with many recipients not using them for self consumption but diverting the same to flour mills and poultry industry! From where can the government bring good quality grains as the storage conditions in most ware houses are pitiable and not conducive to preserve the quality. There is even some suggestion that good quality food grains can be imported when there is a shortage in government granaries. With foreign exchange being maintained through generous remittances from immigrant Indians abroad, can the country afford the luxury of importing food grains for doling to the voters? Unthinkable indeed!  

Recent reports from Karnataka which is implementing the food security scheme indicate the ground reality as far as working of the scheme is concerned. Faced with shortage of grains in the state granaries, government started buying grains from the open market and it was soon realized that there was an active recycling process involving collusion between the beneficiaries and the grain trade. The beneficiaries who received grains promptly sold their quota to the private trade which in turn sold the same back to the government!      

Most interesting case regarding the adverse consequences of distribution of freebies comes from the state of Chhatisgarh where it was noticed that the alcohol consumption in the state went up dramatically after implementing the subsidized grain distribution scheme. It appears that beneficiaries of the food scheme in the state were selling the grains they received and using the money they got for buying alcoholic beverages! The State seemed to be happy because its liquor revenue jumped by as much as 90% during the last year. In 2013-14, Chhattisgarh is reported to have earned Rs. 1,900 crore from liquor sales, nearly Rs. 500 crore more than the revenue earned in the previous year. Paradoxically  the earning from liquor sales appears to be going to subsidize the food security program of the state! In effect the food security program intended to improve the health of the people inadvertently is driving them to be alcoholics! Probably the same story will be repeated in other states also and the only beneficiary is likely to be alcoholic beverage industry! Mahatma Gandhi must be turning in his grave seeing such things happening in his Motherland for which he sacrificed his life.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

"THE PULSE SIDE STORY"- A NATION IN DISTRESS!

Wide prevalence of life style disorders like CVD, BP, Type II Diabetes, Cancer etc in the Western world has been attributed to drastic changes in the food consumption habits brought about by higher affluence, high purchasing power and sedentary living. Rapid catching up with the West by India during the last few years in terms of incidences of these diseases amongst its population, is again due to changes taking place in the diets as a result of wide exposure to Western dietary practices after the so called economic liberalization set in motion in early nineteen nineties. The undue predominance of IT Sector in the industrial landscape of the country has brought about significant disparities in the personal income levels. The inroads made by many global food companies into India offering a vast array of products with doubtful nutritional value, have impacted the eating habits of many youngsters, especially those with high disposable income which may have long term health repercussions.

It is unbelievable that by 2020, more than one third of the deaths in India will be from heart disease. There are 45 million heart patients to day and in a decade's time we will have the unenvious record of being the top nation as far as this disease is concerned! The revelation that the disease catches Indians at an age,10-15 years younger than their western counterparts, is indeed shocking. It is also painful to know that 6-8% of the urban population is afflicted by Diabetes mellitus while another 25-30% suffer from hyper tension. There may be many reasons for this transformation from a healthy country in 1947 to the status of the "sickest" country in the world within seven decades of "planned" development which is a telling reflection on our ability to manage ourselves.

Changes in dietary habits, to some extent, caused by the population increase and declining agricultural production and their consequences, were never addressed seriously and probably this may the root cause of rapidly deteriorating health conditions of the population. Pulses are considered a vital food component in the diet of a typical Indian as it provides a major portion of the daily protein needs and the recommended daily intake (RDI) is 70 g a day. As against this the per capita availability stands at 27 g a day and the actual consumption varies from 14 g to 140 g a day depending on the economic status of the consumer.

Legumes which include soybean and peanut are considered health protectants as their regular consumption at the RDI level confers protection against diseases like heart disease, diabetes, prostate cancer and osteoporosis for normal healthy population. Pulses, a sub-category under legumes are annual leguminous crops, yielding 1-12 seeds of variable sizes, shapes and colors within a pod and there are 11 types of primary pulses which include dry beans (Phaseolus spp) like kidney beans, lima beans, mung beans, black gram etc; dry broad beans (Vicia faba) like horse bean, broad bean, field bean etc; dry peas ( Sativum spp); dry cow pea or black eyed pea (Vigna spp); chick pea or garbanzo bean or bengal gram(Cicer spp); pigeon pea or toor or cajan pea (Cajanus spp); lentils (Lens spp) earth pea(Vigna spp); vetch (Vicia spp); lupins(Lupinus spp) and some minor pulses. In India major pulses consumed are toor, bengal gram, mung, black gram and moth bean.

In 1949-50 pulses were grown on 20.7 million hectares (mh) of land producing 8.16 million tons (mt) with an average productivity of 405 kg per hectare when the population was less than 500 million. In 2000-01, 23 mh of land was cultivated to produce 13 mt of pulses with average yield of 572 kg per hectare when the population touched 1 billion mark. The per capita availability declined from 45 g a day in 1949-50 to a mere 27 g a day by 2000-01. The abnormal price increase for pulses during the last 5 decades have made it a luxury item for most of the population. While the availability in 1949-50 itself was not enough, being only 65% of RDI, the situation must have considerably worsened by now. It is a pity that only 17% of the land under pulse cultivation received irrigation while the rest depended heavily on rains.

One of the most significant aspects of Indian diet is that pulses provide the much needed essential amino acid, methionine in a predominantly cereal menu making it a balanced one. Meat eating population does not suffer from this handicap as it is a very balanced food with all essential amino acids in right proportion. Besides pulses provide valuable dietary fiber and being low in glycaemic index (GI), they also ensure balanced metabolism in the body without unnecessary glucose stress on the system. In some African countries 65% of the calories are derived from pulses in the diet with apparently no ill effects. Probably high pulse consumption makes them sturdy and disease resistant ensuring active life. In nineteen eighties, GOI Mission on pulses and oil seeds made an attempt to boost the production of the two commodities but with very little success as judged by the sorry situation vis-a-vis pulses that exists to day. Unless massive investment is made to increase productivity of pulses by expanding the irrigation infrastructure, mobilization of more inputs and systematic injection of new agriculture technology, the country will never have the capability to provide its citizens with the wherewithal to fight modern day diseases.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/