India is set to become the world’s largest producer of lentil (masoor) during the 2023-24 crop year on account of higher acerage. This is significant for India which, despite being among the world’s top five lentil growers, second only to Canada, depends on imports to meet its domestic demands. With the government incentivising farmers to grow more pulses, the country has reported a higher area under lentil crop during the current year. According to the data available with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the world top lentil growers in 2022 were Canada (2.3 million tones), India (1.26 million tonnes), Australia (0.99 million tonnes), Turkey (0.44 million tonnes), and Russia (0.26 million tonnes) during 2022. Despite being the second largest producer of lentil, India has so far been relying on imports to meet its domestic requirements, buying mainly from Australia, Canada, Russia, Singapore, and Turkey. During the current year , it also imported some quantities of lentil from UAE, USA, Sri Lanka and Nepal. During the April-October period of the current financial year (2023-24), India imported 9.46 lakh tonne of lentils, 159% higher than the 3.65 lakh tonne imported in the same period last year.
