Question : CONSTITUTION OF TUR BOARD

(a) whether there is any proposal to set up the Tur Board on the lines of the Coffee Board;

(b) if so, whether any request has been received from the Government of Karnataka in this regard; and

(c) if so, the details thereof?

MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE (SHRI AJIT SINGH)


(a) to (c): A statement is laid on the Table of the House.



STATEMENT REFFERED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (c) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 44 DUE FOR REPLY ON 4TH MARCH, 2002.


(a): No, Sir. There is no proposal with the Government to set up Tur Board on the lines of the Coffee Board.

(b)&(c): A request in this regard was made by the State Government of Karnataka last year. It was proposed to undertake the activities like supply of inputs, supply of production credit, fixation of MSP and procurement of all produce at this price, processing of the produce procured and research and development in redgram production under the proposed Tur Board. After examining the proposal, it was not considered appropriate to set up a separate Tur Board as all the activities proposed under the Tur Board were already covered under different Mini-Missions (MM-I, MM-II, MM-III & MM-IV) of Technology Mission on Oilseeds & Pulses (TMOP). Under Mini Mission-I, ICAR has released several varieties of pulses including Tur. The processing aspects of Tur is covered under Mini Mission-II while the supply of inputs is covered under Mini Mission-III. In order to provide remunerative prices to the pulse growers including Tur (arhar), the Government of India declares Minimum Support Price (MSP) before every season. For the year 2001-2002, the Minimum Support Price for Tur (Arhar) has been fixed at Rs.1320 per quintal. The National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (Nafed) being the Central Nodal Agency for Market Support Operation of pulses enters into procurement operation if the prices fall below MSP. Besides this, the Government of India has already established Directorate of Pulses Development at Bhopal which is monitoring the progress of implementation of Centrally Sponsored Scheme of National Pulses Development Project (NPDP) being implemented in 30 States/UTs including the State of Karnataka.

For increasing the production of pulses including Tur, a Centrally Sponsored Scheme of National Pulses Development Project (NPDP) is under implementation in different States including Karnataka. Under the scheme, assistance is provided to the pulse growers including Tur through State Governments for different components like production and distribution of seed, distribution of seed minikits, distribution of improved farm implements, sprinkler sets, Rhyzobium culture/PSB, Micro-nutrients etc. Besides this, Front line demonstrations by ICAR and Block demonstrations and IPM demonstrations by the State Deptt. of Agriculture are conducted in order to transfer the improved production and protection technology to the farmers` field.