India Pulses and Grains Association announces THE PULSES CONCLAVE 2020

• The 5^th edition of The Pulses Conclave will be held at Aamby Valley City, Lonavala from February 12" to 14", 2020;
• Chief Guest: Shri Raosaheb Patil Danve, Honble Minister of State, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution;
• Close to 1000 trade stakeholders from India and overseas expected to participate in the Conclave;
• Focus of the Conclave will be to brainstorm on ideas to help Indian Pulses Trade become a major contributor to the PM's vision of making India a $ 5 trillion economy by 2024

Chennai, 1" February 2020: India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA), the nodal body for India's pulses trade and industry today announced that the 5" edition THE PULSES CONCLAVE, their biennial global pulses conference will be held from Feb. 12^th to 14^th , 2020 at Amby Valley City in Lonavala, Maharashtra. IPGA expects close to 1000 trade stakeholders from India and key pulses exporting countries like USA, Australia, Canada, Myanmar, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, Malawi, etc. to participate in The Pulses Conclave 2020 (TPC 2020).

Shri Raosaheb Patil Danve, Honourable Minister of State, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution shall grace The Pulses Conclave as the Chief Guest and will be joined by Guest of Honour like Mr. David Marit, Hon'ble Minister of Agriculture, Government of Saskatchewan, Canada. The Conclave will also see the participation of senior Indian Government officials including Dr. Krishnamurthy Subramanian, Chief Economic Advisor, Government of India and Dr. Ashok Dalwai, CEO of National Rainfed Area Authority Shri Ashish Bahuguna, Former Agriculture Secretary and Former FSSAI Chairperson; Dr. Bijaya Behara, Economic Advisor, Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Dr. SK Malhotra, Agriculture Commissioner, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare.  

(L to R) Pradeep Ghorpade, Chief Executive Office, Indian Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA); Zaverchand (Jitu) Bheda, Chairman, IPGA; Bimal Kothari, Vice Chairman, IPGA; Pritesh Nandu, Managing Committee Member, IPGA

The Pulses Conclave 2020, as a part of its agenda will not just discuss increasing domestic production and consumption but will also bring to fore other areas of the trade like Improving Processing efficiencies, increasing Consumption, Exports, Value Addition, Protein Extraction, Post-harvest Crop Management, etc.

Mr. Jitu Bheda, Chairman, IPGA speaking on the occasion said, "Hon'ble Prime Minister's vision is to double the farmers income by the year 2022 and a huge effort has been put into achieving the same. The result has been that India's pulses production has steadily grown every year from around 19 million tons in 2013-14 to 23 million tons in 2018-19 and the target for 2019-20 is of 26.30 million tons. IPGA's agenda and road map going forward will be to encourage its members to take advantage of the increased domestic production, balance imports vis-à-vis the production and demand thereby ensuring that the Indian consumer does not face any availability crunch nor high retail prices."

Mr. Bimal Kothari, Vice Chairman, IPGA said, "At TPC 2020 IPGA's focus will be to try and put together a roadmap that will help the Indian Pulses Trade be able to contribute to the Hon'ble Prime Ministers vision of making India a $ 5 trillion economy. The domestic production of pulses has consistently stayed over 23 million tons in the last three years, and this has helped give a fillip to the processing sector which has now moved beyond traditional dal milling

Mr. Kothari further added, "Recognizing the need of the hour, IPGA has collaborated with the Good Food (GFI) Institute for The Pulses Conclave 2020. GFI will present a one-hour session titled, Product Innovation in Pulses: Spotlight on Alternative Proteins. The session will explore key questions about stimulating the ecosystem for business and research in the country. The session will cover aspects such as Global overview of the alternative protein sector, types of products, success case studies; current global bottlenecks in product development scientific information on indigenous crops, lack of functional ingredients for entrepreneurs, lack of processing capacity as well as challenges to be overcome for the Indian pulse industry to capitalize on this ecosystem agricultural transformation for the growth of these value chains, lack of processing capacity and technology know-how."

Mr.Kothari also said, "Pulse processors are actively engaging in developing an alternative protein sector in India which will include developing tasty, affordable and high-protein foods, making plant-protein products from pulses, developing plant-based and cell-based alternatives to meat, dairy and eggs to dramatically reduce animal suffering as well as reduce environmental strain on the planet caused by the animal agriculture sector. The growth and development in the processing sector will see the flow of domestic and foreign investments into the sector."

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