Centre asks states to buy 22,659 tonnes of pulses from NAFED

NEW DELHI: The Centre today asked state governments to buy 22,659 tonnes of pulses lying with the cooperative NAFED and offload in the domestic retail market to control prices.

The Centre has written various letters to state governments to buy pulses from NAFED. However, only Tamil Nadu has immediately sought 232 tonnes of Tur.

"NAFED have purchased gram and pigeon pea (Tur) on the Minimum Support Price, the stock were available in warehouses of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka," Agriculture Ministry said in a statement.

NAFED has 22,659 tonnes of gram and tur dal in its warehouses.

"NAFED and the central government in the past issued many letters... to the states and requested that they can purchase pulses directly from the NAFED.

"Although still only TANFED (Tamil Nadu) immediately sought 232 metric tonnes of Tur and from the remaining states so far no demands have been made. Government of India also imports pulses in sufficient quantity," the statement added.

India is estimated to have produced 17.38 million tonnes of pulses in 2014-15 crop year (July-June) as against 19.25 MT in the previous year.

The country imports about 4 million tonnes of pulses annually to meet domestic demand.