Pune: India's winter chana, or chickpea, acreage could set the direction for inflation in pulses next year, as water shortages and the threat of strengthening El Nino cloud planting prospects. Any fall in planting may prompt exporting countries to step up their efforts to capture a larger share of India's market for the protein-rich food.
Chana, India's most consumed pulse, which is central to making everything from salty snacks to nutritious meals, needs adequate soil moisture and cool weather for a good crop. Sowing has started in some regions, but the progress is slow. State advisories to conserve water and shift to less water-intensive crops have added to concerns over winter sowing.
Chana has become 30% costlier from a year earlier in wholesale, while prices of other pulses such as tur, urad and yellow peas have increased 35-45%. Chana accounts for about 45-50% of the total consumption of pulses in India, followed by tur at about 15-20%. Prices of urad and moong, both kharif crops, have increased due to a fall in production. With the monsoon deficit expected to cut the production of tur, the harvest of which will begin in November, good production of chana is important for keeping inflation in pulses under control.
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The tender prices in auctions of chana from government buffers have increased by about 25% in the last two months. "The increase in chana prices during the last two months was mainly due to the absence of rainfall in October. However, we still have a sowing window of more than a month for chana," said Nitin Kalantry, a processor of pulses in Latur, Maharashtra.
Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has advised farmers not to plant rabi crops wherever there is a need to conserve water for drinking purposes. Some states like Rajasthan and Karnataka have advised farmers to opt for less water-intensive crops. Rupesh Rathi, a dal miller from Vidarbha in Maharashtra, observed that farmers from Vidarbha and Marathwada, who do not have assured irrigation facilities, would not be sowing any rabi crop this year.
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With the intensifying El Nino impact on India's agriculture, industry and government delegations of leading pulses-producing countries are lining up in India, hoping to increase exports to India, the largest consumer of pulses.