India Contributes nearly 24 percent to Global Pulses Production: Agri Minister

India is the world's largest producer and buyer of pulses, contributing almost 24% to global demand, Minister of Agriculture Narendra Singh Tomar said on Saturday.

He said the production of pulses in the country has risen from 14 million tonnes (140 lakh tonnes) to 24 million tonnes (240 lakh tonnes) in the last five-six years.

‘India is the world's largest producer and buyer of pulses. India has almost become self-sufficient in generating pulses,’ Tomar said at an international conference in Rome on World Pulses Day during a virtual speech. India produced 23.15 million tonnes of pulses in 2019-20, which is 23.62 percent of world supply, he added.

Tomar said that protein-rich pulses are an essential crop for food baskets. He said the government was concentrating on increasing the output of pulses to fill the gap between supply and demand. Tomar highlighted the numerous steps for the growth of the agriculture sector taken by the government since 2014.

In 2019, the government initiated the PM-KISAN scheme, through which Rs 1,15 lakh crore was transferred by direct bank transfer to over 10,5 crore farmers, he said.