Key Points
India, which accounts for nearly half of the worlds pulses consumption, imported 2.26 mt of lentils, tur and urad during the January-October period, against the previous years 1.4 mt...
Union consumer affairs secretary Rohit Kumar Singh on Thursday emphasized the need for a partnership between India and Brazil for the import of pulses and urged businessmen and officials of Brazil to grow pulses, especially tur (pigeon pea) and urad (black gram) to cater to the demand of Indias 1.4 billion population amid falling production and growing demand..
Addressing a conference on the future of India-Brazil relations in the agribusiness sector", Singh said, I, as consumer affairs secretary, need to ensure that food items are available in the country for our 1.4 billion consumers at an affordable price..
As per the agriculture ministrys first advance estimate for the 2023-24 crop year, the production of total Kharif pulses is estimated to be lower at 7.1 mt from the previous years 7.8 mt output due to unfavourable climatic conditions. ..
At the conference, Niti Aayog member Ramesh Chand suggested that India learn from Brazil in terms of strengthening the economy by following their industrialization model that offers employment to people outside the agriculture sector, boosting agricultural productivity by using more pesticides while ensuring food security, looking at their zero hunger programme, efficiently using water in the farm sector and increasing the private sectors role in the agriculture sector, technological integration to increase capacity of ethanol blending with petrol, and so on. ..
