The government announced Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY), when India went into its first lockdown in 2020 providing 800 million people with rice, wheat, and pulses, in addition to the ration provided under the Public Distribution System (PDS). More than 1.2 million tonnes of pulses were distributed under PMGKAY between April and November 2020 and this was the first time the government distributed pulses at such a large scale.
The National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED), which is the nodal procurement agency for pulses (like Food Corporation of India, or FCI, is for rice and wheat), faced initial problems since it had no prior experience in distribution under PDS. Over the years, there have been demands from various quarters, including NAFED and the India Pulses and Grains Association, that the government includes pulses in its PDS. Currently, 5 major pulses — gram (chana), green gram (moong), black gram (urad), lentils (masoor), pigeon pea (tur or arhar) are procured by NAFED on behalf of the Union government from farmers at the Minimum Support Price (MSP). The procurement is capped at 25 percent of the actual production for that year/season. “There is no limit on the procurement of wheat and rice. If the limit on pulses is removed, it can help ease the demand,” said Srivastava.