Union Home Minister Amit Shah said before the sowing operation, tur farmers can register on the portal to sell their produce to NAFED and NCCF at MSP. File
| Photo Credit: ANI
Union Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Thursday urged farmers to cultivate pulses on a large scale to reduce dependency on imports. He assured them that the two cooperatives, the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Limited (NAFED) and the National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation of India Limited (NCCF) would procure produce at a minimum support price or the market price.
Mr. Shah inaugurated a tur dal procurement portal through which farmers can register and sell their produce to NAFED and NCCF. A similar facility will be launched in future for urad and masoor farmers as well as maize farmers, he said.
The Minister also transferred via Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) about ₹68 lakh to 25 farmers towards payment for sale of tur via the portal.
After the launch, the Minister said that before the sowing operation, tur farmers can register on the portal to sell their produce to NAFED and NCCF.
The country is still dependent on the import of some varieties of pulses except for chana and moong, the Minister said. “By December 2027, the country should become self-reliant in pulses. We will not import even one kilo of pulses from January 2028,” he added.
He said that with this beginning, in the coming days, the prosperity of farmers, and the self-reliance of the country in the production of pulses, and nutrition campaigns, will be strengthened. “With this, our campaign of crop pattern changing will gain momentum and there will also be changes in the areas of land reform and water conservation,” he said.
“Pulses are also an important crop for land reclamation because the cultivation of pulses increases the quality of the land. He also said that pulses production requires less water and the falling groundwater level in many parts of the country remains a matter of concern for our future. If the groundwater level is to be maintained and increased, then such crops will have to be selected whose production requires less water,” the Minister said.
