Union Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh said Thursday that the government currently has 43.82 lakh tonnes of buffer stock of different pulses.
In a press conference, he stated that the government has sufficient pulse stocks.
“We are telling the states that they should purchase pulses from us for programs such as Mid-Day Meal. The Union Cabinet has already decided to provide gram for states’ schemes like ICDS at Rs 8 per kg less than the market price… Instead of buying expensive food from the market, they can take from us,” Singh said, adding that 88,600 MT of chana has been assigned to these states due to Indent received from Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
A Department of Consumer Affairs statement stated, “In order to augment the buffer stock, the government has begun purchasing 1 lakh tons of imported tur and 50,000 tons of imported urad.”
Singh provided details regarding pulse imports, stating that five vessels are at Mozambique port for loading tur, and one is in transit to load tur. In the first week of October, a ship carrying a tur landed in India.
Additionally, he informed me that two vessels carrying masoor – one from Canada and Australia – are in transit, and one vessel has reached the port of Kakinada.
Singh shared information about using new technology to predict the price of essential commodities. In the event that these conditions exist today, what will be the price of onion three months from now? Predictive analytics is based on science.”
“We, along with Delhi University’s professors who deal with artificial intelligence, are using two to three algorithms such as Random forest and neural networks that take input data from commodities and global conditions and forecast what the price level will be in three months based on that information,” he said.
If we make predictions beyond three months, there is a greater degree of uncertainty. Predictions made one month in advance are more accurate. It is done as part of the planning process,” he explained.
According to Singh, the Centre built a buffer stock of 2.50 LMT (Lakh Metric Tons) of onion during the harvesting season of Rabi 2022.
A government official said that irradiation technology might be used to minimize onion losses post-harvest.
