India's pulse import worth over Rs 25,500 cr in FY16: Govt

In a separate query, the minister told the House that government has inked an MoU with Mozambique on pulses.

"This MoU fixes targets of minimum quantities of export of tur and other pulses from Mozambique to India over the next five years whether through private channels or government to government sales...," he added.

The target for import is 1 lakh tonnes (LT) this fiscal, 1.25 LT in 2017-18, 1.20 LT in 2018-19, 1.75 LT in 2019-20 and 2 LT in 2020-21.

To encourage farmers to grow more pulses, Ahluwalia said the government has increased the minimum support prices (MSPs) for pulses and cereals for 2016-17 season.

"Further, to incentivise cultivation of pulses in the country, the government has announced a bonus of Rs 425 per quintal for kharif pulses, namely arhar (tur), urad and moong over and above the MSPs for 2016-17," he said.

The objective of the government's price policy is to ensure remunerative price to farmers by offering to procure their produce at the MSP. However, farmers are free to sell their produce to government procurement agencies at MSP or in the open market, whichever is advantageous to them, the minister clarified.

In another query on pulses sown area, Ahluwalia said depending on yearly variations in weather, rainfall situation, irrigation facilities, shift in area to other competing crops and the like, total area under pulses in the country in the past 5-6 years has been fluctuating in the range of around 23-26 million hectares.