India has started importing red lentil (masoor ) from Russia. A consignment of Russian masoor lentils landed recently at the Chennai port ,Tamil Nadu. Russia is already the single largest source of crude oil supply to India, displacing Iraq.

India, which is the largest producer and importer of pulses in the world, at present buys red lentils (masoor) mainly from Canada and Australia.

In September 2021 the government of India allowed the import of masoor from Russia but due to phytosanitary concerns and high cost of the Russian pulses ,pulses were not imported from Russia .

The Indian government has started importing the Russian pulses as they are now available at comparatively cheaper prices and also the government wants to reduce its reliance on Canada and Australia.

Pulses and India

India is the largest producer, importer and consumer of pulses in the world accounting for nearly 28% of global production, 15% of International trade and 27% of world consumption.

According to the third estimates of the Union Ministry of Agriculture the production of pulses in 2022-23 (July- June crop season) is estimated to be 275.04 lakh tonnes.

Among the pulses the maximum contribution is that of Gram and second highest contribution is of Moong .

According to the third estimates of the Union Ministry of Agriculture ,the production of Gram in 2022-23 is expected to be 135.43 Lakh Tonnes and of Moong 37.40 lakh tonnes.

Import Dependent

India is self-sufficient in Gram /chana and in Moong. But it is not self sufficient in the widely consumed pulses like Tur, Urad or Masoor. As a result there is always a shortage of these pulses and consequently prices of these pulses remain high in the market. To meet the demand of pulses India imports the pulses from a number of countries . India meets around 10-12 % of its demand for pulses through import.

Source of Pulse Import

India imports Tur pulses mainly from East Africa and Myanmar .
Masoor is mainly imported from Canada and Australia.
Urad is mainly sourced from Myanmar .

Liberal Import Policy

To meet the production shortfall and to control the price of these commodities India has entered into a long term contract with a number of countries for the supply of pulses.

India will import 2 lakh tonnes of tur per year from Mozambique for the next five years starting from 2021.
It will import 50,000 tonnes of tur from Malawi per year till 2025 .
It will import 100,000 tonnes of tur from Myanmar per year till 2025 .

Ports notified for pulse import

To ease the process of pulse import ,the government of India has specified five ports for import of pulses from Myanmar,Malawi and Mozambique.

These ports are :

Mumbai Port in Maharashtra,
V.O.Chidambaranar Port in Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu . It was earlier called Tuticorin.
Chennai Port also in Tamil Nadu
Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port ,Kolkata, West Bengal
Hazira Port, Gujarat

Top Pulse Producing States in India (2020-21 data)

S.NO	State	Pulses	Estimated production
1	Rajasthan	moong, Arhar, gram, and moth	4821.84 tonnes
2	Madhya Pradesh	gram, tur, and urad	4364.74 tonnes
3	Maharashtra	Mainly Tur	4224.87 tonnes
4	Uttar Pradesh	Gram	2621.15 tonnes
5	Karnataka	horse gram, pigeon pea, black gram, green gram,	2170.89 tonnes

Source PIB

Agricultural season in which pulses are grown

Pulses are grown in all the three crop seasons of Kharif, Rabi and Zaid.

Kharif : Arhar (Tur), Urd (Blackgram), Moong (Greengram), Lobia (Cowpea), Kulthi (Horsegram) and Moth;

Rabi : Gram, Lentil, Pea, Lathyrus and Rajmash;

Summer/Zaid : Greengram, Blackgram and Cowpea.