India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA) successfully hosts the 3rd National Pulses Seminar 2021

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], February 17 (ANI/Hunk Golden and Media): India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA), the nodal body for India's pulses trade and industry, successfully hosted the 3rd National Pulses Seminar on February 10 & 11, 2021. With over 45 national and international experts speaking at the seminar on critical topics and attended by around 2000 delegates from 25 countries.
The seminar coincided with the 5th World Pulses Day celebrated on February 10. With initiatives like the National Pulses Seminar, The Knowledge Series and The Pulses Conclave, IPGA has established itself as India's leading think tank and knowledge hub in the pulses sector.
Jitu Bheda, Chairman - IPGA in his welcome address said, "It was only fitting that we all come together to celebrate the 5th World Pulses Day. At IPGA, pulses are not just a product; they are also a promise of nutritional security for a significantly vegetarian nation such as ours. Hence, as India's leading knowledge hub and think tank on the pulses and grains industry, our focus extends way beyond the market dynamics, and encompasses the value pulses bring to our health, society, and country."
Narendra Singh Tomar, Hon'ble Union Minister, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare; Ministry of Rural Development; Panchayati Raj; and Ministry of Food Processing Industries in his keynote address said, "Our domestic production of pulses has risen by 23 percent between 2017 and 2019 due to the hard work and efforts of farmers and scientists. The efforts are now in progress to reach a production level of 320 million tons by the year 2030."
Tomar also appreciated the IPGA's effort in organizing the National Pulses Seminar and asked IPGA to submit a paper summarizing the thoughts, opinions, views, suggestions and recommendations of the speakers and participating delegates to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare so that the same could be taken into consideration by the Ministry.
Raosaheb Patil Danve, Hon'ble Minister of State, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution in his keynote address said, "I am glad that IPGA held this seminar on the occasion of World Pulses Day. I am also happy that they have a special session on the nutritional value of pulses and their contribution to a healthy meal. Pulses are full of proteins and other nourishing elements hence many national and international organizations have recommended including pulses in daily diet. Pulses are also an important crop for farmers. Such a seminar has facilitated important discussion on various aspects of pulses and will benefit the entire value chain of pulses production."
Leena Nandan, Secretary - Consumer Affairs in her address said, "India is the largest producer and consumer of pulses in the world. However, the domestic production is not sufficient to meet the needs of our growing population, to meet the diverse food preferences across the country and we need to rely on imports to bridge the demand-supply gap. In the first phase of the PMGKAY, whatever were the preferences of the states and they were incredibly diverse, all those pulses were provided to those state governments, and in the next phase of the programme, which was from July to November 2020, it was the whole chana that was distributed to all the states. So, this was possible only because of the large buffer stock of pulses we had with us, and we propose to continue to maintain this buffer stock."
Adv. Vijay Sardana - Techno-Legal and Policy Expert, Advocate & Arbitrator, Agri-Food Value Chain and Trade Policy Expert: "Today, the MSP formula of cost-plus fifty per cent, based on M S Swaminathan committee's widely disseminated recommendation, lacks clarity. The formula does not factor in productivity and quality. It means that if there is any farmer achieving high productivity and his cost of production is low, he should technically get less MSP. Moreover, if somebody is producing good quality and another person is producing bad quality, there is no difference between the two.
The farmer has a right to a respectable livelihood, that is required, we have to ensure that but MSP approach is faulty because the farmer's asset island and his effort on the land should give him returns so I feel so that is why that it is high time we come out with a better formula, so that farmer gets a fair price and ensured price for whatever hard work he is putting in and more the productivity, more the income, higher the quality, better the income should be the approach.
No one will suffer. Today, there is encouragement for farmers to move towards better water-efficient and energy-efficient options like drip irrigation, solar systems, better soil health management, nutrient built subsidy. There is no attempt right now to reduce the subsidy but definitely, there is a serious attempt on how to improve the efficiency of money which is going to the farmers. It should reach the farmers for a targeted purpose and should not be leaked or siphoned off by all sorts of elements in the system."
The 3rd IPGA National Pulses Seminar also featured addresses by eminent speakers like Sunil Kumar Singh, Additional Managing Director - NAFED who spoke about the role of NAFED in procurement and distribution of pulses under various Government schemes and their future plans.
February 10 was also celebrated as the WORLD PULSES DAY and the National Pulses Seminar had speakers like Dr RoshaniSanghani, Founder - Aasaan Health Solutions and Beck Garrison who spoke about the role and importance of Pulses in our daily diet for nutrition. Garrison also presented the recommendations of the latest American Dietary Guidelines that hailed Pulses as a powerhouse of nutrition. Robynne Anderson, President - Emerging Ag and Cindy Brown, President - Global Pulses Confederation also shared messages on the occasion of the World Pulses Day recommending specific roadmaps to improve the nutritional security and ensuring balanced diets for all across the world.
IPGA had also invited domain experts like Dr S K Malhotra, Agriculture Commissioner, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare to present an overview of the 2020-21 Crop Year from the Ministry's perspective and mapped that against the Trade's perspective that was presented by Rahul Chauhan, Managing Director of iGrain India Limited.
On the trade side, the 3rd IPGA National Pulses Seminar also has panel discussions on key pulses. Each panel comprised of an eminent spokesperson from India and one each from the origins where the pulses are cultivated and exported to India and other parts of the world. These panel discussions covered key aspects like production, available stocks, demand and supply scenarios as well as a price outlook for each pulse under discussion. The pulses discussed and the panellists for each were:
1. Tur, Urad and Moong Panel: Lalit Bangar, Sr. Vice President and Head Agri - Swiss Singapore Overseas Enterprises Pte. Ltd., B Krishnamurthy, Managing Director - Four P International, Vikram Thakkar, Managing Director - Hariom Industries, Piyush Patel, Managing Partner - Angur Pulses LLP and Samir Esmail, Director - Afrisian Ginning Ltd.
2. Desi Chana Panel: Nirav Desai, Managing Partner - GGN Research, Sanjay Periwal, Managing Director - S P Meditors, Jayesh Patel, Group CEO & Executive Member - Bajrang International Group (BIG Group) and Peter Wilson, Managing Director - Wilson International Trade.
3. Kabuli Chana Panel: Rajat Sarda, Managing Director - Rajat Agro, Jonathan Grange, Partner - Sunstone Brokers, Matias Macera, Trading Manager - Desdelsur S.A. and Jeff Van Pevenage, President & CEO - Columbia Grains.
4. Masoor Panel: Lalit Pant, Viterra India, Harsha Rai, Vice President, Sales - Mayur Global Corporation, FatihTiryakioglu, Board Member - Tiryaki Agro Food Industry and Trade Inc., Mostyn Gregg, Head - Pulses and Senior Trader - Agrocorp International and Rav Kapoor, CEO & Director - ETG Commodities INC.
5. Peas Panel: Sunil Sawla, Hon. Secretary - IPGA and Managing Director - M MAgrichem, Mithilesh Kumar Gupta, Proprietor - Annapurna Udyog and President - Kanpur Dall Millers Association, Sergey Feofilov, General Director, Ukragroconsult LLC and Brett Melvin - Trader - Maviga NA
6. Beans Panel: Katia Sambin, Sales & Marketing Director - Chippewa Valley Bean, Ankit Gupta, Managing Director - Ankit Impex India, Rodrigo Madeira, Director - Correpar Commodity Brokers and TewodrosYilma, Group, Managing Director - Alpha Trading Partners PLC.
The National Pulses Seminar 2021 also had a panel discussion on NEW OPPORTUNITIES IN PULSES SECTOR that explored the opportunities available to stakeholders to diversify into pulse protein extraction as well as value additions in pulse-based products. The panel curated by Good Food Institute, India featured experts like Aashish Kasad, Partner - Tax and Regulatory Services - Ernst & Young LLP, Jeff Rumney, Vice President of Marketing - USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council & American Pulse Association, Nicole Atchison, Chief Executive Officer - Puris Holdings, Vishal Vijay, Director - Agrocorp International and Raul Pastorini, Director - Namastrade. The panel was moderated by Dhruvi Narsaria, the Corporate Engagement Specialist at Good Food Institute India.
The recordings of all the sessions that featured in the 3rd IPGA National Pulses Seminar 2021 have been uploaded on the India Pulses and Grains Association's website. Please visit http://ipga.co.in/nps2021/seminar-videos.php to view the same.
This story is provided by Hunk Golden and Media. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/Hunk Golden and Media)