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Commodity |
| TUR (PIGEON PEA) |
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| Description | Overview |
History | Cultivation pattern |
Tur (Pigeon pea) producing
countries | Indian tur market |
Major trading centers |
| Description |
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Pigeon pea or tur plant is an annual crop, cultivated for its
sweet tasting legumes, which is consumed as a popular staple diet
in many countries. It belongs to the family of ‘Fabaceae’ and
is also known as Cajanus Cajan. This plant is a single, woody
stemmed plant reaches about 4 meters in height and has a
sophisticated root system that it makes it a drought resistant
type. Pigeon pea plant has multi colored flowers with most of them
being yellow colored. Mostly cultivated as secondary or mixed
crop, pigeon pea is cultivated in around 25 countries of the
world.
The peas or legume of this plant is termed
with various names in different cultures such as red gram, Congo
pea, Gungo pea, no eye pea etc and are widely consumed throughout
the world.
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Overview
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The legumes of the pigeon pea plant are not actually peas but
contribute to one of the most famous pulse in the world. In both
new and old worlds, this pulse bears a high popularity level and
it is proven by the fact that it is cultivated in more than 25
countries of the world. As compared to the other pulses produced
in the world, pigeon pea or tur holds the sixth rank in the
context of production. The world production of this crop figures
around 3.25 million tons annually. Dominant producers of this crop
are the countries in the Indian subcontinent, Africa and Central
America as the climate conditions suit the development of the
crop. The leading producer is India producing about 85 % of the
world’s total produce. Pigeon pea is consumed throughout the
world as a staple food. It is also consumed as a green vegetable
and as a fodder crop.
Though India is the largest producer of the crop but it
is not into the exports of tur at all, as the domestic consumption
demand in the country is quite high and Myanmar, the neighboring
country to India leads the tur exporting countries’ list. The
major importing countries that import tur or pigeon pea are
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Myanmar
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Republic
of Tanzania
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Kenya
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Malawi
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Uganda
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Mozambique
The pigeon pea importing list is topped by the India
and the European Union.
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History
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Pigeon pea originated in Asian continent
particularly it is said that to be a native to
India in as long as 3000 years ago. From India,
it was taken to the eastern African region
approximately a thousand years ago. Then it was
called ‘Gandoles’ and was cultivated in
Egypt according to the remnants found in the
tombs of Egypt.
When Columbus discovered the new world or America, the
African or the black people were taken there as
slaves. Pigeon peas traveled to the new world
with the slaves of America. This was the time
when this crop started gaining popularity and
cultivation of pigeon pea, on a wider level, got
started. Tur has maintained its reputation since
then and even now it is being widely demanded.
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| Cultivation
pattern
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Pigoen
pea is mostly cultivated as a secondary or mixed
crop throughout the world. It is mainly a
tropical crop which is cultivated with the
cereal grains such as maize, millet and sorghum
etc. This crop can be long lasting crop as it
can last for a period of 3-5 years but it is
generally grown as an annual crop. It is
basically a drought resistant crop due to its
long tap roots and that is why it is cultivated
in semi arid areas. Pigeon pea is also helpful
in the process of nitrogen fixation of the soil.
In
India, the sowing season for this crop is in the
summers or the khariff season. June and July are
considered to be the best time to plant this
crop. The seeds of pigeon pea starts germinating
in two weeks time. The plant starts flowering
with the upcoming of October and it is harvested
in December and January. In Africa, the
harvesting period of pigeon pea crop is around
June and July.
During
harvesting, the crop is picked by hand, dried in
the sun and then it is taken for threshing
process. After threshing has been done, the
remaining grainis cleaned through the winnowing
process. The crop starts arriving in the Indian
market from October.
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| Tur
(Pigeon pea) producing countries |
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The following countries stood out
as the topmost pigeon pea producing countries in the
world in 2004-05
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India (2430000 MT)
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Myanmar (500000 MT)
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Malawi (79000 MT)
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Uganda (78000 MT)
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Kenya (55000 MT)
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United republic of Tanzania
(47000 MT)
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Nepal (26000 MT)
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Dominican Republic (13000 MT)
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Trinidad & Tobago (2900
MT)
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Haiti (2600 MT)
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Panama (2200 MT)
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Bangladesh (2000 MT)
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Venezuela (2000 MT)
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Burundi (1800 MT)
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Jamaica (1300 MT)
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Grenada (500 MT)
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Comoros (300 MT)
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Bahamas (125 MT)
The world production of pigeon
pea sums up to 3.25 million tons. India is the largest
producer contributing to around 85% of the world total
production followed by Myanmar and Malawi. It is grown
on 4.3 million hectares land in the world, India again
leading in this context with 85% of the area covered.
Myanmar and Nepal stands on 2nd and 3rd position in
the list of the countries with the highest area
covered in the production of tur. In Africa, it is
cultivated on 0.42 million hectares of land and china
contributes to 60000 hectares of land. The area
covered in Asia has reached up to 3.81 million
hectares as compared to the figure of 2.44 million
hectares in 1972. This has led to a 61 % increase in
Asia’s production. Also there has been an increase
in the production level and the area covered in the
production of pigeon pea in Africa. This continent has
an astonishing 96% increase in its production and 66%
rise in terms of area. The global production of tur
has been increasing and is risen up by 43% since 1970.
As already mentioned, pigeon pea helps in nitrogen
fixation process and can provide 40Kg nitrogen per
hectare.
Production of
tur (pigeon pea) in India
India
being the largest producer of tur in the world
contributes to around 85% of the world’s total
production that sums up to 2430000 metric tons. The
main areas in which tur is cultivated in India are
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Maharashtra
(700000 tons)
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Uttar
Pradesh (500000 tons)
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Karnataka
(300000 tons)
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Madhya
Pradesh (300000 tons)
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Gujarat
(100000 tons)
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Rajasthan
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Haryana
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Punjab
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Tamil
Nadu
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Orissa
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Bihar
India accounts to a production of
12-15 million tons of pulses and pigeon pea
constitutes to around 20% of the share in it. India is
also the leading country in the list of maximum area
covered contributing to around 3.73 million hectares.
This crop yields between 600 to 1200 kg per hectare
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| Indian
tur market
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Indian economy has been dependent on pulses for a long
time. India is the largest producer, consumer as well
as largest of importer of pulses. Tur or the pigeon
pea, in the Indian context, is the second most
important crop after peas. Tur too, is being produced
the maximum in the world, by the country. The
production stands at around 2.5 million tons, which is
the 4/5th share in the world and 1/5th share in the
total pulses produced in the country. Maharashtra
produces the maximum level of pigeon pea in India
accounting to 700000 tons.
The domestic consumption of tur
in India is estimated at around 3.4 million tons.
Clearly, the production in the country is not
sufficient to satisfy the domestic demand and hence it
has to rely on imports of the crop. India imports its
unfulfilled demand from Myanmar and Tanzania. The
imports of the country sums up to 4 to 5 lakh tons
annually. Even though India cannot fulfill its
domestic demand, it seldom exports pigeon peas in
small quantities to the following countries
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United Arab Emirates
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United States of America
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Singapore
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Saudi Arabia
India has a long chain for the highly fragmented
market for tur. The prices of pigeon pea in India are
based on the Minimum Support Price set by the
government. The tur imports are allowed in the country
without any import restrictions.
Market Influencing Factors
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Weather conditions in the
country
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Hoarding and Black-marketing
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Crop situation in the
exporting countries especially Myanmar
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Prices of the other major
competitive pulses
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| Major
trading centers of Tur (Pigeon pea) |
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The
major areas in India where tur is traded are
Tur is also traded at the various commodity
exchanges in India namely National Commodity
& Derivatives Exchange ltd, Multi Commodity
Exchange of India ltd and National Multi Commodity
Exchange of India ltd.
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