'It's too risky to grow... it is gold, but only if all goes well'

Why pulses breed caution, disenchantment in those who have to grow it.

Tur is a crop of gold, says Brij Bhushan Mishra, as he navigates an Indica through NH-24 towards what was once a prominent mandi for pulses in Hapur, 60 km from Delhi, in Ghaziabad district.

But Mishra, who is driving a taxi between his paddy and wheat crop, says that last year he planted a mix of tur, moong and urad on just one out of the 10 bighas (a bigha is less than an acre) of land he has in his village of Peepri Khalsa in Shivgarh block of Pratapgarh district in Uttar Pradesh.

This year too, he has planted not an inch more. “It is just for our consumption. It is too risky to grow more,’’ he said. It is fetching the farmer Rs 60 a kg today, provided he has any harvested crop left.

The prices of pulses have been going skyward but not many farmers are enthusiastic about growing more of it. In Sadikpur village of Hapur block, Bedpal is not ecstatic at the prices of pulses going up. He looks at the tiny shoots of urad in his field, their leaves already gnawed by worms, and then shows the blooming arhar, sown indifferently with some millets.

“The pests may devour these blooms any day,” he says, adding that he would be getting some ‘powder’ (pesticide) from the market today. As for the price, he may get Rs 6,000, today.

“But there is no guarantee that I will get it in October, when I harvest it. Last year, I got 1.5 quintals of arhar, which I sold for a mere Rs 2,200 at the Hapur mandi in January. The mandis began offering Rs 6,000 much later,” he added.

The second issue with pulses which deters farmers is the long duration. Bedpal has taken care to sow “videshi arhar’’ (imported arhar) in one bigha. This variety is a short-duration crop, which can be harvested in about five months. Unlike the indigenous variety, which takes up to nine months. “We cannot afford to keep the fields occupied for such a long time for a single crop,” he said. “This (imported) variety, sown in June, would be cut by October and my field would be clear for wheat,” he added.

Mishra and Bedpal also fear raids by neelgai (antelope) which move in herds and feed on any standing pulse crop. “We can’t even think of increasing the acreage,’’ they said.

Sadullah of Murshadpur village in Hapur block is happy growing maize and paddy in his five bighad. For arhar, he has taken three extra bighas on lease, as he did last year. Last year, the rain ruined the crop and he got just 20 kg a bigha, not the expected quintal.

At Hapur mandi, in Ghaziabad district, where Bedpal and Tyagi sell their crop, pulses and pulse mills are history. One story goes that once upon a time there were 2,000 khattis or pits for storing pulses in the market, each khatti with a capacity of 800 maans (one maan equal to half a quintal).

“Today, there is just one pit preserved, as a memento of old times,” said Jaswant Singh, a farmer-cum-trader.

All the 80 pulse mills have ceased to operate. A mill, which needs 25 quintals a day to be viable, gets a quintal or two now and then; it also needs electricity, The mandi gets just four hours of electricity every day.

A few old millers have morphed into wholesale dealers, who get their finished stuff from Delhi and sell it to local retailers.

“The farmers have diversified to sugarcane, and four years ago to paddy, in a big way. Two years ago, farmers got Rs 15 a kg at the mandi for pulses, but then they just stopped sowing it,” Singh said. Mishra argues that pulses, especially tur, are still gold.

“But, only if all goes well,’’ he concedes. If only there was a mechanism for giving us good seeds, some irrigation facilities, then there would have been more to sell, farmers said.

(The first two parts of the series appeared on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tomorrow: Four quintals of paddy equals one quintal of dal).