Uttar Pradesh aims to be self reliant in production of pulses by 2026 – 27
Lucknow: Yogi Government intends to make Uttar Pradesh self-reliant in terms of consumption of pulses by the year 2026-2027. The government has also prepared a complete strategy for this challenging task. It also includes increase in per hectare yield and cropped area
It is noteworthy that Uttar Pradesh is the largest producer and consumer of pulses. But, now only half of the consumption is produced in the state.
According to the strategy, the yield per hectare is to be increased from 14 to 16 quintals in the stipulated time period. The total yield target is 30 lakh tonnes. Apart from this, preparations are also on to cover about 1.75 lakh hectare additional area with pulses crops.
For this, the government will provide seeds of advanced and high yielding species of traditional crops of pulses. There will also be a demonstration of some progressive farmers there. Farmers will also be given a large number of free minikits of seeds. This sequence is also continuing. Along with this, the focus will be on short duration crops like moong, urad (Urad) etc. Their co-cropping farming will also be promoted.
Apart from this, the government is also guaranteeing increase in production by using sprinkler irrigation system on uneven land, increase in production by farming using furrow and ridge method and purchase at Minimum Support Price (MSP).
In fact, after record production in food grains, the government is now thinking of nutritional security one step ahead of food security. Pulse crops will play the most important role in this. The reason is that pulses are the only source of protein for the common man, especially the vegetarians.
Pulses prices often make headlines every few years due to low production compared to consumption. When this happens, the pulses on the common man’s plate become thin. It is missing from the plate of the poor.
To prevent this from happening, the Yogi government has prepared this complete action plan. Work on this had started during the first term of the Yogi government itself. As a result, the production of pulses increased from 23.94 MT to 25.34 lakh MT during 2016-17 to 2020-21. During this period, productivity per hectare increased from 9.5 quintals to 10.65 quintals. However, this is only 45 percent of the state’s consumption.
Self-reliance will also save foreign currency
India is the world’s largest producer, consumer and importer of pulses. Due to the highest population, UP accounts for the largest share of this consumption. In such a situation, the pulse producing countries of the whole world (Canada, Australia, America, Turkey, and Myanmar) keep an eye not only on the production of India and Uttar Pradesh but also on the storage of six months.
In such a situation, if the yield is less, then in view of the huge demand here, the pulses in the international market become very fast. It also has a lot to do with the position of the dollar against the rupee.
If the value of dollar is high against rupee then imports also become expensive. In this way, the country has to spend valuable foreign exchange in importing pulses. If Uttar Pradesh becomes self-sufficient in the production of pulses, then foreign exchange will also be saved.
