The Expert Committee on Pulses, set up by the government under the chairmanship of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) director general R S Paroda, said the MSP for pulses was always lower than the prevailing market price and there really was no procurement. "The high risk factors because of the threat of diseases and pests in pulses and the low market prices deter farmers from using more inputs and from increasing the area under pulses," the Committee said. "A renumerative MSP for pulses is, then a desirable step to ensure higher production of pulse crops," it added.

A higher MSP and an incentive price support for the farmers were justified in view of the fact that pulse crops add to the nitrogen economy of the soil and which in the long run, helps in sustaining other cropping systems, the report pointed out. "Growing of pulses and their incorporation in differentcropping patterns in the country by farmers be seen as a right step in the overall National interest and be encouraged through appropriate incentives and policy support," the report said. The report also pointed out that the MSP for pulse crops should be drawn up taking into consideration the cost of production, their importance in the cropping system as in sustaining the productivity of land in the long term and the nitrogen economy of the soil through biological nitrogen fixation. Stating that a more realistic and attractive support price was likely to emerge based on these considerations, the report said the system of fixation of MSP for pulses should be such that it encourages the farmers to increaseproduction and productivity for increasing the domestic availability of pulses. The report further noted that during the last five decades, the production of pulses had increased from 8.16 million tonnes in 1949-50 to 14.8 million tonnes in 1998-99 with productivity increasing from 405 to 622 kg per hectare.

The slow pace of production compared to population growth had led to a progressive decline in the availability of pulses per capita per day from 60.7 gms in 1951 to 40 gms in 1998. The report added that there was a large gap in the yield potential of improved varieties and the existing productivity levels at the farmers' fields."These yield gaps range from 25 per cent to 30 per cent between the average potential yield of research plots and frontline demonstrations at farmers' fields," the report said.