Comfort food no more: Dal rice set to get more expensive

As consumer price inflation spirals up to a 4.81 per cent in June, pulses could be the next expensive food item, after tomatoes and other vegetables. (Representative Image)

Price of pulses sees steady rise, up 10% this year and likely to go up further. Despite the government’s effort to keep the price of pulses in check, there is no stopping the rise in the short term. Government sops and subsidies must continue, say experts.

As consumer price inflation spirals up to a 4.81 per cent in June,  pulses could be the next expensive food item, after tomatoes and other vegetables.

Come monsoons, high vegetable prices become the norm, but this year, prices of pulses are up by almost 10 percent. In the past five months, according to an analysis by rating agency Crisil, the inflation rate of pulses has nearly doubled. The Wholesale Price Index in May showed pulses inflation at 5.8 percent and CPI at 6.6 percent. In June, CPI showed pulses inflation of 10.58 percent.

What makes inflation in pulses problematic at this point is that this is compounded by elevated prices of wheat and rice, making the Indian thaali overarchingly expensive. Rice prices have gone up by 10 percent while those of wheat have gone up by 12 percent.

A reasonably priced source of protein for many Indians, part of many mid-day meals and state-run food programmes,  dal or pulses are integral to what is generally seen as a nutritious meal.

Moreover, while vegetable inflation is expected to be transitory, pulses could be sticky. In the food inflation basket, pulses have a six percent weightage and any increase in prices here impacts household budgets.

Among pulses, it’s the Arhar and Urad dals that are witnessing the most volatility. According to D K Joshi, Chief Economist, Crisil, “Government has been proactive in its policy on controlling prices of pulses; from increasing imports to the National Pulse Mission to raising MSP for pulses. The government has promised that they will buy all the pulses – but the interventions will have to continue.”

India’s Pulse Story

Locally, pulses are grown in Punjab, Haryana, Western UP, Coastal and Eastern Karnataka and some parts of Maharashtra. India has, however, been importing large amounts of pulses from countries such as Myanmar and Canada. Over the years, a slew of measures have been taken to reduce India’s import dependency for pulses. According to data by  Ministry of Agriculture and Family Welfare , production of pulses, which was in the range of 16-19 million metric tonnes during 2010-2016 has gone up to 25-27 MMT (as of 2021-22) an increase of about 48 percent.

What has the government done so far?

Production of pulses has been a major focus area under the National Food Security Mission which promoted improved technology , distributed high-yielding variety seeds and provided crop advisories to farmers at subsidised prices. Apart from that, there were sharp increases in minimum support prices , opening up of export markets for pulses, removal of import restrictions on pulses and removal of pulses from the Agricultural Produce Market Committee Acts, to enable better market reach to pulse growers.

In 2019-20 and 2020-21, there were price shocks despite higher domestic production, and inflation in pulses escalated to 16 percent and 12 per cent respectively, the government implemented price stabilisation policies, such as higher procurement and release of buffer stocks. In FY 2016, a price stabilisation fund was also set up to enable purchase of pulses to release in the market during times of any abnormal increase in prices.