India Targets 100% Homegrown Dal: Protein Security Finally Joins Food Security
For decades India proudly celebrated food security, yet quietly depended on other countries for the one nutrient most Indians rely on daily for protein. Dal. Despite being the world’s largest producer of pulses, India remained structurally dependent on imports from Canada, Myanmar and Africa. The government’s new push toward complete domestic production is therefore not just an agricultural scheme. It marks the first serious attempt to align food security with nutrition security.
India’s Food Security Model Ignored Protein For 50 Years
The Green Revolution solved hunger, but it solved only calorie hunger. Wheat and rice production expanded rapidly because the policy ecosystem supported them with irrigation, electricity subsidies and guaranteed procurement. Pulses never received the same support.
As consumption rose with population and income growth, production lagged. India became the rare country that was simultaneously the largest producer and the largest importer of the same crop. The gap was not small. Demand now stands close to 290 to 300 lakh tonnes while domestic output is around 252 to 260 lakh tonnes.
The result was predictable. Dal prices periodically spiked and governments rushed to import supplies to calm inflation. Cheap imports helped consumers in the short term but permanently discouraged domestic production.
The Real Problem Was Incentives, Not Farming Ability
Farmers did not avoid pulses because they could not grow them. They avoided them because growing them was economically irrational.
Minimum Support Price existed on paper but procurement rarely existed on ground. A wheat farmer always had a buyer. A tur farmer had uncertainty. When production increased, imports crashed prices. When production fell, imports replaced domestic supply. In both situations the farmer lost.
So land moved away from pulses into wheat, rice and soybean. India’s pulses deficit was created by policy signals, not agricultural limitations.
What The Government Changed
The shift now underway is subtle but fundamental. Instead of announcing higher MSP alone, the government began actually purchasing pulses at scale through agencies like NAFED and NCCF. The signal changed overnight. Pulses finally had a buyer.
Trade policy was also recalibrated. Instead of importing aggressively at every price spike, imports are now managed to stabilise farmer income. Buffer stocks are being created so bumper harvests do not crash prices.
At the same time, short-duration pulse varieties allow farmers to grow moong or tur within existing crop cycles rather than replacing wheat or rice. This turns pulses into an additional income crop rather than a risky substitute crop.
Correcting The Crop Composition Problem
India’s issue is not total shortage but imbalance. Chana production is close to self-sufficient while tur, urad and masoor remain structurally deficient. The new policy specifically targets these deficit pulses rather than pushing blanket output growth.
This matters because dal inflation historically came from shortages in specific varieties, not total pulses availability. By correcting crop composition, the government is attempting to stabilise prices permanently rather than temporarily.
Economic Impact Beyond Agriculture
Stable dal prices directly reduce food inflation volatility, one of the most politically sensitive economic indicators in India. For dryland farmers, pulses provide income without expensive irrigation expansion. The import bill reduces and rural purchasing power rises simultaneously.
For poorer households, the impact is nutritional. Dal is the primary protein source for a large vegetarian population. Stable supply improves diet quality far more than additional cereal production ever could.
Strategic Implications
Protein security now joins energy and fertiliser security as a strategic priority. Dependence on a handful of exporting countries has long given external markets leverage over Indian food inflation. Reducing that dependence strengthens trade autonomy.
Food independence will no longer mean only overflowing grain stocks. It will mean balanced nutrition produced within the country.
India’s pulses mission is therefore not a dramatic agricultural revolution but a quiet correction of incentives. By aligning farmer profitability with national nutrition needs, the country may finally solve a problem that persisted even after hunger was defeated. If sustained, India will move from calorie security to genuine food security, completing a transformation that began more than half a century ago.
