Consider revisiting yellow peas import policy: SC

Acting on a PIL filed by Kisan Mahapanchayat challenging the Centre’s policy to allow import of yellow peas without any duty, a Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi asked the Centre to convene a meeting of relevant stakeholders to revisit the existing policy framework governing the import of yellow peas.

“We hope and expect that the ministries will effectively resolve this issue with a new policy regime,” the Bench said in its order.

The Bench, however, made it clear that it was not inclined to issue any directions as the matter involved economic policy.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan submitted on behalf of the petitioner that the import policy has resulted in a fall in prices of soybean, groundnut, urad, moong and tur dal below the minimum support price (MSP). In the absence of an incentivised MSP, the price should at least be sufficient to meet the expenditure medium or small-level farmers incurred in producing pulses, he submitted.

Agreeing with Bhushan’s submissions, the Bench said, "A farmer knows that if he grows wheat, he has a dedicated procurement system and assured price. But if he grows pulses, he may have to run from one shop to another in the grain market and may or may not get a fair price."

Referring to the Report of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, Bhushan said there was a need for diversification of crops with special focus on technological innovations and remunerative prices to pulses and oilseed farmers.

The report talked about aligning the import duty structure with MSP to ensure remunerative prices to farmers and encourage them to increase the area of production of oil seeds and pulses and recommended banning the import of yellow peas, Bhushan told the Bench.

Highlighting the need for better coordination among ministries, the Bench noted that policies relating to import pricing and market support should be structured in a manner that ensured remunerative prices to farmers and didn’t adversely affect pulses grown in India.

On behalf of the Centre, Additional Solicitor General N Venkataraman said yellow peas’ production had drastically dropped in recent years from 273 Lakh tonnes in 2021 to 261 Lakh tonnes in 2022-2023 and 242 Lakh tonnes in 2023-2024.