The Food Corporation of India is evaluating the possibility of setting up pulses silos to drive modernisation and technology adoption.
“A feasibility study to assess the storage requirement and technology for silos for storage of pulses is being done by Pricewaterhouse-Coopers (PwC). The report is likely to be submitted by March-end,” said an FCI official who didn’t want to be quoted. He said the idea to have pulses silos has been mooted and work has started. “The centre has been procuring pulses from farmers since the past two years. Last year, it even created a buffer stock of 20 lakh tonnes through local procurement and imports. Hence, we think pulses can be the new commodity where we can enter for storage and procurement,” said an FCI official.
Pulses production has been increasing since 2016-17. In its second advance estimate for crop year ending June 2018, the Agriculture ministry projected pulses production at 239.5 lakh tonnes compared with 231.3 lakh tonnes the previous year.
National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) officials said that once a pilot project was made it could be scaled up. In 2017, Nafed procured 14 lakh tonne pulses for buffer and around 10 lakh tonne for MSP scheme. It is currently procuring tur and chana pulses.
