Fall in dal output; prices to shoot up

Hyderabad: Prices of ‘dal’ are set to shoot up the roof from January with the kharif output going down by almost 40 per cent in Telangana. Excess output of pulses last season has made the market prices collapse making it difficult for farmers.

With the last season’s experience of dismal market price, farmers considering pulses has non-renumerative shifted to cotton. Already prices of red (toor dal), green (moong) and black gram (urad dal) range from Rs 70 to 85 a kg. Customers have to bear brunt when the fresh produce hits the market in four months’ time.

Farmers, who had tough time in handling increasing input costs, were disappointed with the government for not providing remunerative support price for their produce.

Due to deficit rainfall and non-availability of canal water, farmers preferred cotton to pulses in a big way. Cotton cultivation has been taken up in 17 lakh hectares as against 12 lakh hectares last year. Even Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao had recently stated that there would a shortfall in green gram crop this season.

As against the total production of 3.77 lakh tonnes last year, the yield of pulses is expected to be less by about 2.8 lakh tonnes this year.

A top official of the Telangana Agriculture department told The Hans India that the total pulses cultivation has been reduced to 3.35 lakh hectares from 5.62 lakh hectares this year.

Red gram cultivation has come down to 2.22 lakh hectares as against 3.86 lakh hectares last year. As against the total production of 2.61 lakh tonnes, red gram output would come down to 1.19 lakh tonnes this year.

Similarly, green gram cultivation has been reduced to 88,000 hectares from 1.35 lakh hectares and the production would come down from 82,000 tonnes last season to 50,000 tonnes this year.

Black gram production would also reduce to 19,000 tonnes from 34,000 tonnes as the cultivated area was down to 25,000 hectares from 41,000 hectares last year, according to State Agriculture Secretary C Parthasarathi.