🌾 Schemes & WelfareMAINS · GS3.5

Bihar gets first structured pulse procurement drive

NCCF begins organised masoor buying in Bihar under the Atmanirbhar Pulses Mission, alongside expanded PM-AASHA operations in Chhattisgarh.

What happened

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution reported that the National Cooperative Consumers' Federation of India Ltd. (NCCF) has begun Bihar's first-ever structured procurement of masoor (lentil), a step the government frames as advancing self-reliance in pulses under the Atmanirbhar Pulses Mission.
The Bihar drive is run within the PM-AASHA umbrella, with procured grain moved into WDRA-approved warehouses operated alongside the Central Warehousing Corporation for scientific storage.
As on 22 April 2026, Bihar showed a masoor procurement target of 32,000 MT, with 16 PACS/FPOs registered, 59 farmers onboarded, and 100.4 MT procured so far — an early-stage start rather than a completed cycle.
NAFED is preparing to scale operations in the state through its cooperative network under the Price Support Scheme (PSS).
In Chhattisgarh, PM-AASHA procurement has gained pace through digitised farmer onboarding on the E-Samyukti portal, with 85 PACS centres operational and chana and masoor buying under way across districts including Dhamtari, Durg, Balod, Balodabazar, Raipur, Raigarh and Sarangarh.
Both NCCF and NAFED reported district-wise registration and procurement figures, positioning the exercise as part of the wider MSP-based procurement and price-stabilisation effort.

Background & context

PM-AASHA — Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay SanraksHan Abhiyan ("Prime Minister's campaign for protection of the income of food-providers/farmers") is the Centre's umbrella price-support programme for farmers, announced in 2018 to ensure that growers of pulses, oilseeds and copra receive at least the declared Minimum Support Price (MSP). It is a central-sector / centrally-sponsored support architecture administered by the Department of Consumer Affairs / Department of Food & Public Distribution under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution. The news release sits squarely inside this lineage: the actual buying is done by the two designated central nodal agencies, NCCF and NAFED, on behalf of the government.

PM-AASHA was conceived as an umbrella with distinct components rather than a single instrument. Its core arms are the Price Support Scheme (PSS), under which physical procurement of pulses, oilseeds and copra is undertaken at MSP by central nodal agencies through state agencies and cooperatives; the Price Deficiency Payment Scheme (PDPS), which pays oilseed farmers the gap between the MSP and the actual sale price without physically buying the crop; and pilot arrangements for private procurement (the Private Procurement & Stockist Scheme, PPSS) on a trial basis for oilseeds. The Bihar and Chhattisgarh operations described here are PSS-type physical procurement — the government actually buying masoor and chana and warehousing it — not a deficiency-payment transfer.

The second entity in the release, the Atmanirbhar Pulses Mission, belongs to the government's broader push for self-reliance (atmanirbharta) in pulses. India is the world's largest producer and consumer of pulses, yet remains a net importer in deficit years, depending on imports of tur (arhar), urad and masoor to meet domestic demand. A self-reliance mission in pulses therefore targets the supply-demand gap by assuring farmers a guaranteed market and remunerative price, so that area and output under pulses expand. Extending structured procurement into a major pulse-growing but historically under-procured state like Bihar is the concrete instrument through which such a mission is delivered — assured offtake is what nudges farmers to sow more.

Why does "first-ever structured procurement in Bihar" matter? MSP and procurement in India have historically been concentrated in wheat and paddy and in a handful of states (Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and others), while pulses and the eastern states saw thin, irregular government buying. Bringing organised, agency-led masoor procurement to Bihar widens the procurement map both by crop (from cereals towards pulses) and by geography (towards the east), which is the structural shift the mission and PM-AASHA are meant to achieve.

For Prelims

PM-AASHA full form: Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay SanraksHan Abhiyan — an umbrella scheme to secure MSP for farmers, announced in 2018.
Nodal ministry: Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution (Department of Food & Public Distribution / Department of Consumer Affairs).
Components of PM-AASHA: (1) Price Support Scheme (PSS) — physical procurement of pulses, oilseeds, copra at MSP; (2) Price Deficiency Payment Scheme (PDPS) — pays oilseed farmers the price gap, no physical buying; (3) private procurement pilot (PPSS) for oilseeds. (Some reworked versions of the umbrella also fold in market-intervention and price-stabilisation elements.)
Central nodal procurement agencies: NCCF (National Cooperative Consumers' Federation of India Ltd.) and NAFED (National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd.) — both apex cooperative bodies that buy on the government's behalf.
Crop in focus — masoor (lentil): a rabi pulse, sown in winter; a major source of dietary protein. Chana (gram/Bengal gram) is the other rabi pulse being procured in Chhattisgarh and is India's largest pulse crop by output.
Storage chain: procured stock is held in WDRA-registered/approved warehouses with the Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC); WDRA (Warehousing Development & Regulatory Authority) is the statutory regulator that registers warehouses and enables negotiable warehouse receipts.
Last-mile machinery: procurement runs through PACS (Primary Agricultural Credit Societies) and FPOs (Farmer Producer Organisations); farmers are onboarded digitally via the E-Samyukti portal.
Bihar masoor snapshot (as on 22 Apr 2026): target 32,000 MT; 16 PACS/FPOs; 59 farmers; 100.4 MT procured.
Chhattisgarh snapshot: 85 PACS centres operational; chana and masoor procurement under way; expansion planned to further districts.
What it is NOT: PM-AASHA is not the same as MSP itself — MSP is the announced floor price (recommended by the CACP, the Commission for Agricultural Costs & Prices, and approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs); PM-AASHA is the delivery mechanism that makes MSP real for pulses/oilseeds/copra. It is not the PDS (the Public Distribution System / NFSA, which distributes subsidised foodgrains) and not the cereal procurement done by FCI for wheat and paddy. PDPS pays a price gap and does not involve physical buying — do not confuse it with PSS. The Atmanirbhar Pulses Mission is a self-reliance-in-pulses programme, distinct from the National Food Security Mission's pulse component, though both target pulse output.
The set it belongs to (farmer income/price tools): MSP · PM-AASHA (PSS / PDPS / private-procurement pilot) · PM-KISAN (income transfer) · the FCI cereal procurement system · the market-intervention and price-stabilisation buffer operations — knowing which tool does what survives "match the pairs".

For UPSC: PM-AASHA (2018) is the umbrella that delivers MSP for pulses, oilseeds and copra through three arms — PSS (physical buying), PDPS (price-gap payment for oilseeds), and a private-procurement pilot. The agencies that actually buy are NCCF and NAFED. Bihar's first structured masoor procurement under the Atmanirbhar Pulses Mission is a PSS-type operation aimed at pulse self-reliance.

Why it matters

The exercise speaks to three persistent problems in Indian agriculture. First, the crop bias of procurement: government buying has long been skewed towards wheat and paddy, leaving pulse growers exposed to volatile open-market prices and weak bargaining power. Structured, agency-led procurement of masoor and chana at MSP gives pulse farmers the same assured-offtake signal that cereal farmers have enjoyed, which is the precondition for expanding area under pulses and reducing import dependence. Second, the geographic bias: procurement has historically concentrated in a few states, so extending organised buying to Bihar broadens the footprint towards the east. Third, the institutional thinness at the last mile: by routing procurement through PACS and FPOs and onboarding farmers on the E-Samyukti portal, the operation tries to formalise small and marginal farmers into a transparent, digitised supply chain rather than leaving them to informal traders. The warehousing link — WDRA-approved storage with CWC — addresses post-harvest losses and lays the groundwork for negotiable warehouse receipts and better price realisation over time. Read together, the Bihar pilot and the Chhattisgarh scale-up are early indicators of whether the pulse self-reliance goal can be operationalised at the field level rather than remaining a budget headline.

For Mains

Substantiation

Concrete data point for the MSP/procurement debate: PM-AASHA's PSS arm, run by NCCF and NAFED, is now extending structured masoor procurement to a new state (Bihar) — evidence that the procurement net is being widened beyond wheat-paddy and beyond the traditional procurement belt.

Exemplification

A worked example of formalising small farmers into supply chains — PACS/FPOs as the procurement front-end and E-Samyukti for digital onboarding — usable in answers on agricultural marketing reform, cooperatives, and farmer income.

Problematisation

The early numbers themselves expose the gap the scheme must close: against a 32,000 MT Bihar target, only 100.4 MT had been procured with 59 farmers onboarded as on 22 April — a reminder that announcing procurement and achieving meaningful offtake are very different things, and that thin coverage is the real constraint on pulse self-reliance.

Way-forward

Points to the levers that make pulse procurement work — denser PACS/FPO networks, WDRA-grade storage to cut post-harvest loss, digital onboarding to reach smallholders, and steady MSP signals to expand sown area.

Position

The government's stated stance: deepen the MSP-based procurement ecosystem for pulses to secure farmer price realisation and advance self-reliance in pulses under the Atmanirbhar framework.

Deploys into: MSP, procurement and subsidy reform (GS3.5); minimum support prices, PDS and buffer stocks; e-technology and cooperatives in agricultural marketing for farmers (GS3.4); inclusive growth and farmer income.

Source

Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution · 2026-04-23 · PRID 2254777 · PIB source ↗

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