India Pulses and Grains Association and USA Dry Peas and Lentil Council jointly hosted webinar on India and USA Pulses Crop Update for 2022

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], September 9 (ANI/Hunk Golden and Media): India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA), the apex body of India's pulses and grains industry and trade along with the USA Dry Peas and Lentil Council (USADPALC) jointly hosted webinar on the Outlook of Kharif pulses crop production 2022 and the USA crop update under the aegis of the 'IPGA Knowledge Series'. The webinar aimed at giving an in-depth insight into this year's kharif pulses crop, production, the future outlook of Tur, Urad and Moong, its yield, impact on prices and import-dependence as well as a detailed USA crop update.

Rohit Kumar Singh, Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Government of India gave the keynote address on the Government's perspective on the Outlook of Kharif Pulses Crop Production 2022. The webinar that was attended by over 400 trade stakeholders across India and USA.

The webinar had eminent speakers from across India and USA. Bimal Kothari, Chairman, IPGA gave opening remarks; Rahul Chauhan, Director, Igrain India elaborated on Kharif Outlook 2022 of Tur and Urad production, output perspective and projected demand; Pritesh Nandu, Partner, Himtalal Hirji and Co-Green peas and yellow peas crop production and demand-supply scenario from the Trade perspective; Ritesh Mittal, Director, Pan Shree, Delhi gave an overview of Kharif Outlook 2022 of Moong crop production and demand-supply scenario from the Trade perspective and Lalit Bangar, Chartered Accountant and Pulses Industry Expert highlighted Production of African Tur crop in East African countries, production of Myanmar Tur crop and overall outlook on demand and supply of Tur in India. Jeff Rumney, Vice President, Marketing, USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council gave USA Crop Update whereas Sachin Khurana, India Representative, USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council highlighted the Standard for Quality Campaign that USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council is introducing in India.

While giving opening remarks, Bimal Kothari, Chairman, IPGA said, "IPGA has set out a transformation agenda for the industry and trade. In order to pursue this single-mindedly, we are working closely with the government, policy markers and our foreign partner associations like USA Dry Pea and Lentils Council. We provide policy inputs and forward guidance about markets in the most objective and unbiased manner. Such joint webinars help our stakeholders get deep insights from our expert speakers which help them to formulate their business decisions. It is an indeed honour and privilege to have Rohit Kumar Singh, Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Government of India as the key note speaker. We have been closely interacting with Mr. Rohit Kumar Singh and appreciate his openness for suggestions and ideas coming from IPGA. Indian government is keen to boost domestic production of pulses year on year. Strategies for sustaining self-sufficiency in the pulses sector are evolving over a period of time. The focus has been on closing the yield gaps, area expansion and productivity enhancement. We would certainly like to applaud the efforts taken under the able leadership and guidance of Mr. Rohit Kumar Singh to promote the sector. We are aligned with the thought processes to make India more competitive and a price setter in the global trade."

Rohit Kumar Singh, Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Government of India in the key note address said, "There's likely an impact of uneven rainfall on the kharif pulses crop production. The outlook is not very positive and the erratic rains have been posing a challenge. Department of Consumer Affairs takes cognisance of the situation in the field, both in terms of availability and prices. Accordingly interventions are undertaken to keep the pulses prices under control. If we don't have adequate domestic production, we keep our borders open for facilitating imports from overseas markets. Hopefully this will help us overcome this crisis and the prices in the high demand season will not be excessively high. The share of kharif pulses in overall output has reduced from 37 per cent to 31 per cent, which is not a good sign.

We are the largest producer and consumer of pulses in the world. The production is about 25 to 26 million tons every year, while the consumption is a little ahead of 27 to 28 million tons every year, depending on the year and how the economy is doing. We have also seen that the consumption is also increasing as the poverty levels have reduced in the country. And people, especially the vegetarian part of the population are consuming a high protein diet. In our constant engagement with IPGA, we do touch upon important topics such as how to improve the availability of proteins to the economically disadvantaged sections of the society in India. We are working jointly on a paper to take it up for higher level discussions."

Rohit Kumar Singh complemented IPGA for continuously being very closely associated with the government for the welfare of farmers and this business.

Rahul Chauhan - Director, Igrain India said, "Main pulses production states have got enough rain, although there are some damages in certain areas, but overall, seems to be normal. Sowing of Tur was lesser in Karnataka and Maharashtra and double in Madhya Pradesh whereas sowing of urad improved in Madhya Pradesh, and reduced in Maharashtra and Rajasthan."

Jeff Rumney, Vice President, Marketing, USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council said, "USA Dry Pea and Lentil council is a trade organisation in the United States that represents both the farmers and the industry. Our umbrella organisation as the council, organises farmer meetings, conducts farmer trainings, counselling for farmers to increase their crop production for many crops, but is mainly focused on pea, lentils and chickpeas. The growing conditions in the United States in 2022 were average, the growing conditions across our production region were quite variable. Some areas had too much water, too cool, and some areas, were very dry. The major production areas in the United States are Idaho, Washington, Montana, and North Dakota.

For dry peas, we have planted about a million acres this year. We anticipate about 900,000 acres will be harvested and we are predicting the yield to be about 1700 pounds to the acre, which is slightly less than our five-year average. Usually, we predict around 2000 pounds or essentially one metric ton per acre. For lentils, this year we anticipate the yield to be around 1000 pounds per acre, and it's incredibly variable across the region. Some areas are going over 2000 to 2,500 pounds of the acre and some areas, around 300 pounds of the acre and a lot of that had to do with growing conditions because of the moisture and also insect pressure. We do see a significant increase in availability of chickpeas from the United States for this marketing year. The United States is currently facing major issue regarding shipping which has greatly impacted the export of our commodities, wheat, corn, soybeans, meat products and pulses, out of our west coast ports to China, South America, Europe and to India."

Pritesh Nandu, Partner, Himatlal Hirji & Co, Navi Mumbai said, "The import of peas was restricted by the Indian government till April 2018 thereafter the Indian government has supported the farmers to grow all type of pulses. There were various schemes by the government with a view to make India sufficient in pulses. Due to these efforts, the production of green peas has been continuously increasing in India. Before 2018, India used to import 1.5 metric tons of green peas, but in 2022, India has not only become self-sufficient but has also exported a small amount of green peas. Definitely it will be more next year."

Sachin Khurana from QR Group is the India region representative of the USA Dry Pea & Lentil Council (USADPLC): "The standard for quality campaign is the premium most quality that is produced across the world. The standard for quality campaign is an exclusive program that we are starting for a handful of partners in the country who will actually have access to our standard for quality seal. USA pulses are the highest quality pulses in the world, which actually enables us to earn the standard for quality seal every day. We are trying to bring this package to India, bring the seed to India and work with, packages retailers as a joint partnership, where we assist them in creating these brands that have the standard for quality seed, which have the USA product, and which helps consumers reach out to and have access to the best quality pulses that are available across the world. This campaign that we are launching here today is actually going to promote these quality pulses in India and educate consumers about these pulses, which are really high in protein, high in fiber, high in iron and other essential nutrients."

Ritesh Mittal, Director, PAN SHREE, Delhi: "As we know, moong is the blessing for vegetarians and it's very rich in protein. The main producing green moong bean states in India are Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan. Now after 15 to 20 days, we will be getting the crop from Rajasthan. The government is having approximately 13 lakh tons of excess stock of pulses. NAFED is having around 36 lakh tons of pulses stock in which main is Channa, rest is tur and moong and other items. The temperature was perfect and though sowing took less this time, but we are expecting good crop this season."

Lalit Bangar, he is a Chartered Accountant by profession and very closely associated with Pulses industry for 25 years, "Overall outlook of Demand and Supply of Tur in India was overall the highest ever. New development is taking place with a lot more units being set up in United Arab Emirates. In the last few months, there are many licenses and MOUs signed between the UAE government and the privates millers to set up factories and processing plants for pulses there. Indian government should gear up for further requirement of pulses as most of this quantity will be shipped out to UAE going forward.

Krishnendu Sayta, Secretary, IPGA gave the closing remarks and thanked the speakers, partners and all the delegates.

Click here to view IPGA Knowledge Series Webinar on OUTLOOK OF KHARIF PULSES CROP PRODUCTION 2022 AND USA CROP UPDATE videos: https://youtu.be/jqxDySn52h0

The IPGA Knowledge Series Webinars were conceptualised to discuss, explore and deliver key insights on topics of critical interest to the pulses sector in India and the world at large. IPGA has hosted around seven such extremely successful webinars which have had an average of around 700 participants from over 25 countries.

India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA), the nodal body for pulses and grains trade and industry in India has over 400 direct and indirect members which include individuals, corporates as well as Regional Pulses Traders and Processors Associations taking its pan-India reach to over 10,000 stakeholders involved in the farming, processing, warehousing and import business of pulses across the entire value chain.

IPGA's vision is to make the Indian pulses and grains industry and trade globally competitive; and in so doing, help advance India's food and nutrition security. IPGA takes the onus of essaying a leadership role in the domestic agri-business and play a more proactive role in the global domain to foster healthy relations among Indian market participants and between India and all associates overseas.

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Source: Business