Why This Dal Producing District Too is feeling the Pinch of Rising Prices

Narsinghpur, Madhya Pradesh: As homemaker Neelam Jain prepares lunch in her kitchen, the irony of soaring prices in Madhya Pradesh's food bowl is not lost on her. Narsinghpur leads the state in production of pulses, and the locally produced Tur dal is much sought after across India.

A month ago, Arhar dal was being sold for Rs 100 a kilogram (kg) in the retail market here, but now it costs nearly double. Urad that was selling at Rs 90/kg is now being sold at Rs 160/kg, while prices of Moong dal have shot up from Rs 80/kg to Rs 160/kg now.

Ms Jain says, "We can only hope that as farmers harvest pulses and fresh stock reaches market prices will come down."

Though the local administration has seized 500 tonnes of pulses as part of its crackdown against hoarders, scarcity still remains in the market.

The other problem in fresh produce of pulses reaching the market has been the state government's decision to limit the stock to 500 quintals for wholesalers and 400 quintals for retailers.

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Wholesale trader, Mahesh Malpani told NDTV, "We already have 500 quintals in stock, how can we buy more from farmers? This order by the government is not right, the stock limit has to be revised it is not feasible for is traders."

Some farmers are ready with fresh produce of pulses, and would have got a price of Rs 75 to 90 per kg, but the local Gadarwara market is shut due to lack of wholesale buyers.

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A farmer, Pramod Singh Rajput says, "There has been a decent harvest of urad and moong, not as good as previous years but if it is not sold in the market prices how the prices will come down."

Though the administration held a meeting with local traders to ensure that prices can be brought down, but it hasn't yielded much.

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The Collector of Narsinghpur, Naresh Pal says, "The wholesalers and mill owners have submitted a memorandum. I have informed the state government about it."