The Indian government agency NAFED (National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India) has a Buffer stock of 36 LMT of pulses, Chickpeas stock around 27 LMT out of total pulses. For others varieties of pulses stocks are smaller, due to lower procurement by NAFED. Buffer Stock of Other Pulses
Moong - 110 KMT
Urad - 20 KMT
Pigeon Peas - 20 KMT
Lentils - 70 KMT
NAFED procures chickpeas under the support scheme providing MSP (Minimum support price) to farmers. Due to the record production of Chickpeas in the current year, the mandi prices are below MSP enabling NAFED to procure more. The current mandi price of chickpeas is running Rs 4300-4800 per100kg across the markets and the MSP is Rs 5230.Till now, more than 25 LMT procured by NAFED.
The Central Government has decided to sell chickpeas buffer stock to various state Government at a discounted price for distribution in various welfare schemes. The idea is to finish the buffer stock of chickpeas held by NAFED.
According to the third advance estimate, the ministry of agriculture forecast production of chickpeas at 13.98 MMT in 2021-22, which is 17% more than the previous year. In 2020-21 production of chickpeas was 11.91 MMT.