November 3, 2025 07:22 AM IST First published on: Nov 3, 2025 at 07:22 AM ISTThe Narendra Modi government has imposed a 30 per cent import duty on yellow peas, effective from this month. The move, ending duty-free imports of the pulse grain since December 2023, is notable for its timing. Currently, harvesting of kharif pulses such as moong (green gram) and urad (black gram) is on, with the new arhar (pigeon-pea) crop too slated to arrive from December. The sowing season for rabi pulses — mainly chana (chickpea) and masoor (red lentil) — has taken off as well. With most pulses trading well below their minimum support prices (MSP), farmers have little incentive to plant these crops. The incentive is even less in the light of the good monsoon rains, which have recharged groundwater reservoirs and left sufficient soil moisture to enable them to sow more area under wheat than chana.Annual consumer price inflation in pulses was at double-digits for 15 consecutive months from June 2023 to August 2024 on the back of an El Niño-induced crop failure. This led the Centre to scrap import duties on most pulses. India imported a record 7.3 million tonnes of pulses valued at $5.5 billion in 2024-25 (April-March). The imports, along with domestic production recovery, helped cool down prices, so much so that retail pulses inflation has been in negative territory for eight successive months from February 2025. The shoe is clearly on the other foot now, and it’s farmers, not consumers, that are at the receiving end. It also explains the government’s cautious shifting of gears, starting with the levying of 10 per cent import tariffs on masoor and desi (small-sized) chana in March-April 2025, followed by the latest 30 per cent duty on yellow peas. The Union Agriculture Ministry has also approved a Rs 15,096-crore programme for the MSP procurement of urad, moong, arhar, and soya bean.AdvertisementAll this, however, does not address the root of the problem. India’s MSP procurement and import policy is excessively skewed in favour of rice and wheat, which is reflected in their stocks in government godowns being two times or more than the required buffer levels. Import duties on them are also prohibitively high. The MSPs on pulses and oilseeds, on the other hand, are largely on paper, and their growers are also significantly exposed to import competition. Ideally, policy shouldn’t discriminate between crops, and farmers should grow what the market wants. MSP fixation, too, should align more to supply-and-demand market realities than to a mechanical cost plus 50 per cent formula. Even better would be the assurance of a minimum income, rather than price support to farmers in the form of a flat per-acre direct benefit transfer. That will help all farmers, and not just those cultivating rice and wheat.