The pulses industry wants the government to wait till the sowing is completed to ensure there is enough stock with the Centre in case production this year gets impacted due to El Nino. The dal millers are worried that if the government offloads its stocks now, it could end up with big private companies making price control challenging. “We have requested the central government to not sell tur of Kharif 2025 season for two months,” said Suresh Agarwal, chairman, All India Dal Millers’ Association.
The stocks with the government help ease inflationary pressures for consumers, curtail speculative price rise and aid the processing industry to get consistent supply of raw materials.
Agarwal said that if India gets lower-than-normal rainfall as forecast by the government weather agency IMD, then the production of kharif pulses like tur, moong and urad will be adversely affected.
“If the production declines due to less rainfall, the government stock will be useful in keeping prices under control. That is why we think that the government should wait for two months till we get a clear picture of the rainfall and sowing,” he said.
The latest government data shows that the stock of pulses with the government is at about 43 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) in May 2026, marking the highest level over the past three years and more-than-double the stocks recorded in May 2024 and May 2025. The procurement of tur is over 5.34 LMT and of chana is 20.35 LMT.