500 delegates from over 10 countries attended the 5th edition of The Pulses Conclave 2020 successfully organised by India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA)

by Suman Gupta

IPGA has urged the government to have consistent trade policy for pulses to maintain demand and supply balance as well as farmers & consumers interest

• The Pulses Market Outlook for the year 2020-2021 was the focus of the Conclave

• GFI India – IPGA collaboration for The Pulses Conclave 2020 to stimulate the pulses innovation ecosystem in India

• Key discussions on Product Innovation in Pulses: Spotlight on Alternative Proteins and Pulses Retail Packing & Branding – Challenges & Opportunities

Mumbai, February , 2020: India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA), the nodal body for India’s pulses trade and industry successfully hosted the 5th edition of THE PULSES CONCLAVE 2020, a three day mega event for the global pulses trade and industry during February 12th -14th, 2020 at Aamby Valley, Lonavala, Maharashtra. Over 500 delegates from India and across 10 countries including Australia, Canada, Myanmar, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, Malawi, Russia, Turkey to name a few participated in the Conclave.

Key dignitaries present were Shri Sanjeev Chadha, MD – NAFED; Shri Sunil Kumar Singh, Addl. MD – NAFED; Mr. David Marit, Hon’ble Minister of Agriculture, Government of Saskatchewan, Canada; Mr. Rick Burton, Dy. Minister of Agriculture, Government of Saskatchewan, Canada; Shri Ashish Bahuguna, Former Secretary – Agriculture and Former Chairperson – FSSAI, Ms. Cindy Brown, President – Global Pulses Confederation.

Mr. Jitu Bheda, Chairman, IPGA speaking on the occasion said, “The country’s pulses imports have come down to 2-2.5 million tons now from a record level of 5.7 million tons in 2015-16 on substantial increase in domestic production. We at India Pulses and Grains association (IPGA) are committed to ensure that India achieves nutritional security by making pulses affordable to those on or below-the-poverty-line and that can be achieved only by including the pulses into the PDS in every Indian State. IPGA will be stepping up its efforts in engaging with key Ministries like Agriculture, Consumer Affairs, Health & Family Welfare, and Commerce to discuss various initiatives to devise and implement programs that yield win-win results for farmers as well as consumers.”

Mr. Bheda further added, “In this year’s Conclave, while concentrating on the global pulses scenario, we had some interesting speeches focusing on pulses research in India to improve production, policy framework in agriculture sector as well as initiatives towards doubling farmer’s income. The focus of the conclave was to brainstorm on ideas to help Indian Pulses Trade become a major contributor to the PM’s vision of making India a $ 5 trillion economy by 2024.”

Mr. Pravin Dongre, Director, IPGA, while speaking about the TPC 2020 said, “This is our 5^th edition of IPGA. The first one was in 2012, which was a resounding success following which IPGA has come a long way with the trade, with the processors, but most importantly did a project in Rural India, in a drought prone area in Maharashtra. In these 2 particular districts of Bhokardan and Phulambari, we started a Water Rejuvenation project. We dug 25 kms of trenches with the support of the local government machinery. With this initiative, in one monsoon season, we were able to rejuvenate up to 150 villages in those catchment areas. The trenches raised the ground water level assumed to be 4 million liters. We would like to conduct Pilot farms in collaboration with NAFED. We want to get certain market information whereby we will be able to forecast or predict prices during harvest of that particular crop, select those pulses and encourage the farmers to sow them and try to create the same chain by getting the processes involved with a buyback agreement.”

Shri. Sunil Kumar Singh, Addl. Managing Director, NAFED, concluded by complimenting IPGA’s efforts for the Water Rejuvenation project and said, “It’s a good initiative of doing cluster farms. We have a Private Procurement Stockist government scheme and I would like that to be encouraged first. If not, NAFED is there to provide IPGA the safety net of ensuring Minimum Support Price to the farmers for the produce that they have grown.”

The Pulses Conclave 2020, as a part of its agenda discussed increasing domestic production and consumption and also brought to fore other areas of the trade like Improving Processing efficiencies, increasing Consumption, Exports, Value Addition, Protein Extraction, Post-harvest Crop Management, etc. Also, GFI India and IPGA collaborated for The Pulses Conclave 2020 to stimulate the pulses innovation ecosystem in India. The goal of this collaboration is to stimulate the innovation ecosystem in the country for novel food product development utilizing pulses, with a view to creating lucrative end markets for farmers, processors, and traders, and to targeting malnutrition and food insecurity at diverse levels of the income pyramid.

Two of the key panels; Product Innovation in Pulses: Spotlight on Alternative Proteins and Pulses   Retail Packing & Branding – Challenges & Opportunities discussed critical points relevant to the current industry scenario.

About IPGA:India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA), the nodal body for pulses and grains trade & industry in India has over 400 direct and indirect members which include individuals, corporates as well as regional pulses traders and processors. The Association is taking its pan-India reach to over 10,000 stake holders involved in the farming, processing, warehousing and import business of Pulses across the entire value chain.

IPGA’s vision is to make Indian pulses and grains industry & trade globally competitive; and in so doing, help advance India’s food and nutrition security. IPGA takes the onus of essaying a leadership role in the domestic agri-business and play a more proactive role in the global domain to foster healthy relations among Indian market participants and between India and all associates overseas.