New Delhi, February 13: India is the largest producer and consumer of pulses in the world, contributing nearly 24 per cent to the global output, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said on Saturday. He said the country's pulses production has grown to 24 million tonne (240 lakh tonne) from 14 million tonne (140 lakh tonne) in the last five-six years.

"India is the largest producer and consumer of pulses in the world. India has almost become self sufficient in pulses production," Tomar said during a virtual address at an international conference in Rome on World Pulses Day. "In 2019-20, India produced 23.15 million tonne of pulses, which is 23.62 per cent of the world output," he said in a statement.

Tomar said pulses, which are rich in protein, are an important crop for food basket. He said the government has been focusing on increasing the pulses production to bridge the gap between demand and supply.

Tomar highlighted the various initiatives taken by the government since 2014 for the growth of the agriculture sector. The government launched PM-KISAN scheme in 2019, under which Rs 1.15 lakh crore has been transferred to over 10.5 crore farmers through direct bank transfer, he said.

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