Team leaves for Mozambique to explore import of pulses

New Delhi, June 21: In a bid to explore possibility of pulses import, the government on Tuesday sent a high-level delegation headed by department of consumer affairs secretary Hem Pande to Mozambique.

“The delegation will explore both short-term and long-term measures to import pulses from Mozambique on a government-to-government basis,” a statement by the consumer affairs ministry said.

The high-level delegation consists of officials from the commerce and agriculture ministries, along with stateowned trading farm MMTC. Meanwhile, another high level delegation is in Myanmar to discuss the possibility of increasing the quantum of pulses imports. Besides Mozambique, the government is also exploring possibility of the import of pulses from African countries like Malawi through the leasing off arms forto meet domestic demand. The decision to explore increasing pulses import on a government-to- government basis was taken last week in a meeting chaired by finance minister Arun Jaitley.

Pulses prices, especially tur or ar har,u rad and moong have been rising despite several government measures such as the imposition of stockholding limits on traders, creation of buffer stock up to 8 lakh tonne and ban on chana futures in NCDEX.

To create a buffer stock, F CI, Small Farmers Agri-Business Consortium and Na fed have so far procured 1.15 lakh tonne of pulses in the just-concluded kharif and rabi seasons.