The Centre on Monday placed curbs on import of pulses green gram and black gram just as fresh harvests from the current kharif season started arriving.

The notification issued by the Directorate-General of Foreign Trade to restrict the import of urad and moong to 3 lakh tonnes per annum is expected to help farmers get better prices for their produce.

On August 18, new moong commanded a price of ₹5,051 per quintal in Indore, which is 10 per cent lower than its minimum support price (MSP) for the season set at ₹5,575. The prevailing price of urad, too, is much lower than the declared MSP of ₹5,400 a quintal. About a fortnight ago, similar curbs were placed on arhar dal, helping shore up dipping prices in the domestic market. According to sources, the move to restrict toor dal imports to 2 lakh tonnes per annum led to a price increase of about 20 per cent in the country.

The announcement comes amidst the reports that the planted pulses crops have been affected by erratic rains and a slump in prices last year. According to the Agriculture Ministry, the total area under pulses till last week was 13 million hectares, which 3.5 per cent less than 13.5 million hectares cultivated in the same period last year.