Pulses in eastern India: production barriers and consumption coping strategies

Increasing the production of pulses (grain legumes) and ensuring their affordability for consumers have been major concerns of policymakers in India in recent decades. Accordingly, we sought to understand the constraints to farmer expansion of pulse production and the consumption coping strategies of rural households in response to increased prices of pulses. This paper presents a study of the responses of rural households, conducted through focus group discussions, in the states of Bihar and Odisha in eastern India. Responses were analysed by a qualitative clustering method. We found that the availability of certified quality seeds and efficient and effective extension services are needed to encourage farmers to increase pulse production. Additionally, the gap between farm harvest price and the market price needs to be reduced by increasing the support price, assured procurement, and efficient local markets. With respect to people’s behaviour following an increase in the price of pulses, households belonging to historically disadvantaged groups and the landless were the most vulnerable and they resorted to the most severe consumption coping strategies. Landowners generally substituted pulses with foods of higher or equal nutritive value, whereas the landless substituted with food of lower nutritive value. These findings show an urgent need to include pulses in the public distribution system and to create new avenues for non farm income to shield consumption of pulses against increases in their prices in India.