Sambhar with chana dal, anyone? Govt wants you to ditch expensive tur for cheaper alternative

While the country’s chana production has seen a continuous rise, up 44 percent from 2016-17; its tur production has gone down drastically, registering a 30 percent fall

With few tricks left in its bag to control the price rise in pulses, the central government is pushing consumption of a key variant of pulses – chana – in a bid to compensate for a fall in production of the more popular arhar/tur. However, changing established behavioural patterns of consumption would not be an easy task, according to experts.

Anticipating a shortfall in tur and urad output due to erratic weather, the Centre in January this year announced the extension of the duty-free import policy for tur and urad till March 31, 2024. The country produced 30 lakh tonne tur in the 2022-23 crop year, against the demand of 45 lakh tonne.

Additionally, the government on June 2 this year also imposed stock limits on the two pulses allowing traders to keep only limited amount of stocks and offload the remaining. Following this step, the government decided to release tur from the national buffer to arrest the price rise.

Finally, with an aim to shift consumption for those who cannot afford the expensive arhar, the Centre on August 9 launched chana dal as ‘Bharat Dal’ in retail packs of Rs 60 per kg.

But despite interventions, the prices have refused to come down with consumer price inflation for the kitchen staple tur, ruling at a 6-year-high of 34 percent in July as per government's consumer price index.

The consumer inflation for tur had breached the 35 percent mark, last in the July of 2016, when a steep shortfall had hit the country due to two consecutive droughts. The modal price for this essential commodity was ruling at Rs 140 per kilogram on August 23, 2023, up from Rs 110 this time last year.

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The prices of Urad are also elevated by Rs 8, standing at Rs 115 per kg as of date. The inflation here has stood at 7.85 percent.

How efficient will the move be?

As per agriculturalists, while the step of asking consumers to switch from tur to chana may sound good as a policy measure, it does not seem to have a very bright future. This is because a majority of the South Indian population depends on tur. In fact, of the total tur consumption in India, as much as 40 percent is consumed by five South Indian states: Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, and Kerala.

Tur is not only a staple food in South India but it is also an important ingredient in many traditional dishes. For example, tur is a key ingredient in sambhar, a popular lentil soup. As Deepak Pareek, chief growth officer of Suumaya Agro, points out, "You may be able to make up for tur with chana in nutritional value, but not in culinary terms. The latter would not be able to replace tur in sambhar."

In addition, the government would need to undertake a concentrated push to bring down the total consumption of tur to some extent. However, even if the government is successful in doing so, it is unlikely that a majority of consumers will switch to chana. As Ashok Gulati, an agricultural economist and former chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, says, "Only the bottom, say 25 percent, may like to have the cheapest dal, be it chana or any other, and will make the switch."

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Thus, bringing a change in food systems will not be an easy task to achieve. “There are serious behavioural patterns associated with food habits in India. The government would need to take into account the cultural and culinary preferences of the people before making any policy changes,” Sudhir Kumar, Professor of Agriculture at JNU, tells Moneycontrol.

The production situation

The issue in tur has been consumption that is higher than domestic production. The country's tur output remained low at 30 lakh tonne in the 2022-23 crop year (July-June) against 39 lakh tonne last year and has been predicted to see an even steeper fall this year. The country consumes about 45 lakh tonne of tur every year.

While the country’s chana production has seen a continuous rise, up 44 percent from 93.78 lakh mt in 2016-17 to 135.43 lakh mt in 2022-23; its tur production has gone down drastically, registering a 30 percent fall, from the production of 42.9 lakh mt in 2016-17 to 34.3 lakh mt in 2022-23, as per data shared by the consumer affairs ministry.

“We are promoting the consumption of chana above tur as there is a clear gap. Of total pulse production, 49 percent is chana and 12 percent is tur. However, the consumption of chana is 41 percent while that of tur is 18 percent. We simply want to shift the 6 percent tur consumers to chana,” a senior government official on condition of anonymity said.

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So far, the country has imported 6 lakh tonne of tur in Fy24. Imports are undertaken from Myanmar and East African countries. The country had imported 8.9 lakh tonne during the fiscal 2022-23.

Why the push?

The country has been going through changing weather patterns as climate change gains greater significance. Frequent unseasonal occurrences such as rising temperatures in kharif months and untimely rainfall throughout the year have lowered crop productivity.

As per government assessments accessed by Moneycontrol, it is climate change that is playing a key role in lowered production. “Kharif pulse production is sensitive to weather events and is impacting the production of tur in the country. With chana being a rabi crop, and rabi season remaining relatively stable, the production of chana has improved considerably,” an assessment document reads.

Further, the availability of the crop with consistent increase in domestic production, its affordability as it can be consumed with minimal processing, its versatile consumption patterns with the pulse being used in all forms including as whole, split dal as well as flour (besan) and finally the nutritional value it holds, are all reasons making the government look into this option.