Npc Asked To Work Out Policy Package For Pulses
The `Technology Mission on pulses and oilseeds has asked the National Productivity Council (NPC) to formulate a policy package for increasing production and availability of pulses in the country.
This is being done as part of the project financially supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and technologically by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). It aims at suggesting appropriate modifications in the policies and formulating production programmes for the overall development of this sector.
The package is expected to help generate employment and income in rural areas. Though India is the worlds largest producer of pulses, the total output has virtually been stagnating for the past four decades at around 14 million tonnes.
The countrys average productivity is only around 550 kg a hectare, against the world average of 730 kg. The per capita availability of main source of protein for the poor is consequently declining. Liberal imports have also not been able to improve the situation.
The proposed project would study the on-going pulse development programme and recommend ways to strengthen it.
It will examine policy and programme implications of pulse farming in terms of inputs, credit, extension delivery, consumption and nutrition, marketing and distribution, transport, pricing, processing and storage, trade sustainability and food security.
The major output of this project would be to spell out the implications and impact of the government policy and programmes on domestic production, consumption, marketing and processing besides the linkage of the domestic sector with international trade.
The cost-benefit ratio of the proposed measures would be kept in view while suggesting strategies for boosting per hectare yield of pulse crops.