Call for a Balanced Farm Import Policy

25-Nov-2025 06:12 PM

New Delhi. The Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister has stated that the import policy for food and agricultural products should maintain a good balance between the interests of farmers and consumers, ensuring that neither party is significantly affected.

This is essential to prevent a situation like the current one from arising. Due to an unbalanced policy, the prices of many agricultural products are currently under significant pressure, and farmers are struggling to earn better incomes.

The import policy often prevents prices of agricultural and food products from rising, leading to financial losses for farmers.

According to the Agriculture Minister, the country follows a policy that ensures that prices of products like pulses and oilseeds do not rise to such a level that the common man finds it difficult to afford them.

When domestic production is affected and large quantities of cheap imports from abroad are required, import duties are often drastically reduced to control price increases.

With the increase in cheap imports from abroad, domestic market prices begin to soften, sometimes falling so low that farmers' incomes are severely affected.

To encourage Indian farmers to improve production, there is a dire need to ensure profitable prices for their produce.

According to the Agriculture Minister, to control the falling prices of pulses, the government recently imposed a 30 percent customs duty on the import of yellow peas, a cheaper alternative to Indian chickpeas.

Additionally, import duties of 10 percent each have been imposed on lentils and Indian chickpeas. Rice exports have been made completely duty-free and deregulated, and the export duty on onions has also been removed.

These steps are positive, but more efforts are needed. To reduce dependence on imports of pulses and edible oils, there is a need to encourage the promotion of pulses and oilseeds production. The government has already decided to procure 100 percent of black gram, pigeon pea, and red lentils.