Farmers got Rs 50 a kg for tur dal, you get it for Rs 120

Vrinda Nayak has decided she will make dal only thrice a week. "It'll be better to make kadhi, or tamarind broth," says this 38-year-old Borivli resident homemaker. "If the rates for tur dal continue to climb, we may have to completely forego tur dal."

She was reacting after tur dal (as the split pigeon pea is popularly called) began retailing at Rs 120 a kilo, barely three months after tur farmers were made to sell their "spoilt-by-rain" produce for Rs 50 per kilo.

She is not the only one. Whether Hyderabad, Bangalore or Pune, the way tur dal which was selling for Rs 85-90 a kilo until some time ago has suddenly gone beyond Rs 100 has led to worries that after the farmers it is now distress season for consumers. "Dal isn't something only rich eat. Even the poorest of poor have dal," pointed out Ratna Rao of Bangalore. "What choice do vegetarians like us have to get their daily quota of proteins, minerals and vitamins? The government should immediately move to ensure dal doesn't get out of reach."

Over a thousand kilometres away in Kolejhari village, in the heart of Yavatmal district in Vidarbha, local farmer Jitendra Rathod wonders how the prices rose so much in the last few days. "When we were selling, the traders were not willing to pay a paisa more than Rs 50 per kilo. I sold 400 kg of tur and am still staring at debt," he said.

According to Rathod, the traders in Yavatmal town said that the produce's quality was hit by the unseasonal rains and they could not pay more. "Now the traders who hoarded the commodity are making a killing of Rs 70 per kilo. If I had some spare dry space to store the tur, I could have benefited. But it's not like farmers like me are sitting on piles of cash. I knew I was getting very less for my labour but I have to pay the creditors so I had to accept," he said.

dna contacted the Vashi wholesale grain market in Navi Mumbai (where tur dal is wholesaling for Rs 90-95 per kilo) to get a sense of the huge difference between buying price and selling price.

The grain merchants' association president Jayantibhai Rambhiya blamed the high prices on decline in production. "It's common practice to blame hoarding but that's not the case. Domestic crop arrivals have been poor as crop production has declined in 2014-15 to 2.74 MMT – a 16.72% fall from last year's. Obviously, this means there is lesser dal to buy and prices are spiralling," said Rambhiya.

Many like farm rights activist Kishore Tiwari of the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti are not convinced. "Forget crackdown, even if the government improves vigilance this kind of hoarding will not be possible. They are doing with tur exactly what is done with cotton," he said and added, "Mahatrashtra's agriculture minister Eknath Khadse has said there is no solution to farmer suicides. If the government sits and watches the hoarders making a killing what else does he expect to happen. The BJP-led governments in Maharashtra and at the Centre need to introspect on this."

Union minister for consumer affairs, food and public distribution Ram Vilas Paswan denied there was a problem. "If there was any such situation, the ministry would know about it," he said and assured, "We will not allow people to suffer. If the need arises, we will increase imports of whole tur from Burma, Malawi and Tanzania."

Cultivated both as a kharif and rabi crop in India, tur accounts for 22% of the total output of all pulses and is the second largest after gram. India accounts for 90 % of world production with Maharashtra, UP, MP and Gujarat accounting for over 79% share in the country's production. Smaller quantities are also cultivated in Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Orissa and Bihar.