Kharif pulses production may go up by 1 mn tonne: Report

NEW DELHI: Pulses production in the kharif season of the current crop year is likely to go up by upto one million tonne to around 5.3 million tonnes on higher acreage, a senior government official has said.

"Because of sheer increase in acreage, pulses production is certainly going to go up by 0.5-1 million tonnes higher than last year. However, we are not factoring the increase in productivity," Agriculture Secretary P K Basu told PTI here.

India had produced 4.3 million tonnes of pulses during kharif 2009-10, down from 4.69 million tonnes in the previous year. Overall production during the 2009-10 crop year remained flat at 14.59 million tonnes compared to 14.57 million tonnes in the previous year.

Meanwhile, pulses' acreage has gone up in the current kharif season so far to 110.08 lakh hectres against 90.57 lakh hectares in the same period last year, due to increased sowing by farmers in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

With the increase in production, the prices of pulses, which have already started a downward trend, are likely to go down further, the secretary said.

"The market has already started behaving and I believe that the price will come down further," Basu said.