As unrestricted and cheap imports of pulses impact domestic prices and hurt farmers’ realisations, the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) has recommended a ban on yellow pea imports
It has also recommended that import duty on pulses such as tur (arhar), lentils and urad should be increased as part of its non-price policy recommendations for the kharif marketing season (KMS) 2025-26 to ensure better prices for the farmers.
For the KMS 2025-26, CACP has recommended a 1-13.9 per cent increase in MSP for various kharif crops, which was approved by the government on Wednesday.
“Ensuring remunerative prices to farmers is one of the important pathways to achieve Aatmanirbharta in pulses and edible oils, and pro-farmer trade policy mechanism will help in ensuring better prices to farmers,” it said.
However, the unrestricted and cheap imports of pulses and edible oils at low/zero import duty have resulted in domestic prices of soyabean, groundnut, urad, moong and tur falling below the MSP during KMS 2024-25, it observed.
Further, the CACP said “aligning the import duty structure with MSP will ensure remunerative prices to farmers and encourage them to increase area and production of oilseeds and pulses. The Commission recommends that imports of yellow peas should be banned and import duty on other pulses, particularly, tur/arhar, lentil and urad should be increased.”
To augment supplies of pulses on shortfall in domestic crop, the government had opened up the imports of yellow peas in December 2023. Since then, India has imported has imported over 33 lakh tonnes (lt) of yellow peas till April 2025. The duty free window for import of yellow peas is open till May 31, 2025.
The government had also allowed duty free imports of other pulses like tur and urad to boost the domestic supplies. The duty free imports of tur and urad are allowed till March 2026.
Yellow pea is considered to be a near substitute for chana, but cheaper than chana, the widely consumed pulses variety in the country. The huge imports of cheaper yellow peas have been hurting the demand for other pulses, according to the trade.
Recently, trade body The India Pulses and Grains Association demanded that the government impose a duty of 50 per cent to curb the imports of yellow peas. India’s pulses imports touched a record 68 lt with value touching $5.4 billion during 2024-25.
Among other major non-price recommendations, the CACP has suggested preparation of a comprehensive diversification to boost production of pulses and oilseeds. “With the growing imbalance between domestic production and demand for different agricultural commodities in the country and sustainability challenges associated with paddy-wheat monoculture, particularly, in the northwest Indo-Gangetic Plains, a strategic shift towards pulses and oilseeds has become necessary to achieve Atmanirbharta and address these challenges,” the CACP said.
“Over the last few years, the Commission has tried to realign price incentive in favour of pulses, oilseeds and Shree Anna to encourage farmers to diversify crop choices and adopt modern technologies but yield levels of these crops are so low that their relative profitability is substantially lower than the competing crops. Therefore, the Commission recommends that a comprehensive diversification strategy and action plan should be prepared with a special focus on technological innovations and remunerative prices to pulses and oilseeds farmers,” it observed.
Published on May 28, 2025
As unrestricted and cheap imports of pulses impact domestic prices and hurt farmers’ realisations, the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) has recommended a ban on yellow pea imports
It has also recommended that import duty on pulses such as tur (arhar), lentils and urad should be increased as part of its non-price policy recommendations for the kharif marketing season (KMS) 2025-26 to ensure better prices for the farmers.
For the KMS 2025-26, CACP has recommended a 1-13.9 per cent increase in MSP for various kharif crops, which was approved by the government on Wednesday.
“Ensuring remunerative prices to farmers is one of the important pathways to achieve Aatmanirbharta in pulses and edible oils, and pro-farmer trade policy mechanism will help in ensuring better prices to farmers,” it said.
However, the unrestricted and cheap imports of pulses and edible oils at low/zero import duty have resulted in domestic prices of soyabean, groundnut, urad, moong and tur falling below the MSP during KMS 2024-25, it observed.
Further, the CACP said “aligning the import duty structure with MSP will ensure remunerative prices to farmers and encourage them to increase area and production of oilseeds and pulses. The Commission recommends that imports of yellow peas should be banned and import duty on other pulses, particularly, tur/arhar, lentil and urad should be increased.”
To augment supplies of pulses on shortfall in domestic crop, the government had opened up the imports of yellow peas in December 2023. Since then, India has imported has imported over 33 lakh tonnes (lt) of yellow peas till April 2025. The duty free window for import of yellow peas is open till May 31, 2025.
The government had also allowed duty free imports of other pulses like tur and urad to boost the domestic supplies. The duty free imports of tur and urad are allowed till March 2026.
Yellow pea is considered to be a near substitute for chana, but cheaper than chana, the widely consumed pulses variety in the country. The huge imports of cheaper yellow peas have been hurting the demand for other pulses, according to the trade.
Recently, trade body The India Pulses and Grains Association demanded that the government impose a duty of 50 per cent to curb the imports of yellow peas. India’s pulses imports touched a record 68 lt with value touching $5.4 billion during 2024-25.
Among other major non-price recommendations, the CACP has suggested preparation of a comprehensive diversification to boost production of pulses and oilseeds. “With the growing imbalance between domestic production and demand for different agricultural commodities in the country and sustainability challenges associated with paddy-wheat monoculture, particularly, in the northwest Indo-Gangetic Plains, a strategic shift towards pulses and oilseeds has become necessary to achieve Atmanirbharta and address these challenges,” the CACP said.
“Over the last few years, the Commission has tried to realign price incentive in favour of pulses, oilseeds and Shree Anna to encourage farmers to diversify crop choices and adopt modern technologies but yield levels of these crops are so low that their relative profitability is substantially lower than the competing crops. Therefore, the Commission recommends that a comprehensive diversification strategy and action plan should be prepared with a special focus on technological innovations and remunerative prices to pulses and oilseeds farmers,” it observed.
Published on May 28, 2025
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The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making
The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution
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