Supreme Court of India. Photo credit: The Hindu
The Supreme Court of India has asked the Union government to review its existing policy framework and explore a better substitute to incentivize farmers to diversify away from conventional crops such as wheat and pulses.
Apart from policy review and crop diversification, the Court of Auditors asked the Center to convene a meeting of various stakeholders to address various issues, including the absence of an incentive minimum support price (MSP) that should be sufficient to cover the expenditure of small and medium farmers on the production of pulses; guaranteed timely sale of pulses; and fixing the cost price of yellow peas currently imported so that it does not affect domestic pulses produced by farmers.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said the Center needs to put its heads together through its Ministries of Agriculture, Commerce and Consumer Affairs and with the help of experts in the field with on-the-ground knowledge to create a framework to make pulses farming profitable for farmers.
Farmer’s Pulse: About India and its demand for pulses
“There should be a campaign to diversify agriculture. c is the biggest challenge in North India… Do we need that much rice? Maybe we need it for export purposes, but land can also be diverted for pulses. Please ask your ministries to form a committee of people – not people… we have nothing against foreign degrees etc, but someone who has worked at the field level, who knows the circumstances that drive the next farming community,” the CEO said. N. Venkataraman, appearing for the Centre.
The court was hearing a petition filed by the Kisan Mahapanchayat, an NGO represented by advocates Prashant Bhushan and Neha Rathi, seeking to restrict the import of yellow peas, which were fed to farmers growing pulses.
Mr Venkataraman said there was a sharp drop in pulses production from 273 million tonnes in 2021-2022 to 242 million tonnes in 2023-24 after the disease led ministries to import yellow peas.
Chief Justice Kant said the government should realize that the real problem lies in the lack of guaranteed MSP for pulses.
“You have MSP for wheat, paddy, millet. You have to make sure that the farmers get a guaranteed price. Unfortunately, this issue has not been resolved… Yes, it is a matter of politics. There is a reserved price for 100 cents of wheat, but a farmer would have to run on a pillar for a good price of pulses,” Chief Justice Mr. Venkataraman addressed.
Mr. Bhushan said the Chief Justice’s observations accurately reflected the reports of the Commission on Agricultural Costs and Prices in 2025. The commission recommended “promotion of balanced production patterns, comprehensive diversification, an action plan with special focus on technological innovation and a reward process for pulses and oilseeds farmers”. He said the commission has also proposed to align the import duty structure with MSP to ensure remunerative prices for farmers and encourage them to increase the production area of oilseeds and pulses.
“We hope and expect that the Departments will effectively resolve this issue through a new policy decision. It goes without saying that the inter-departmental negotiations will take into account the recommendations of the Commission on Agricultural Costs and Prices,” the court order said.
The bench ordered the government to record the proceedings and listed the case for further hearing on May 8.
Published – 15 March 2026 21:47 IST
