Glossary

The dal trade, in one line per word.

44 terms you will hear in a mandi, a mill or a contract, from APMC to weevilled grain.

A

Aflatoxin: A toxin produced by moulds on badly stored grain. FSSAI caps it at 30 µg/kg in tur dal.
APEDA: Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority. Exporters of pulses register with it for an RCMC.
APMC: Agricultural Produce Market Committee: the regulated market yard (mandi) where farmers sell and traders buy through licensed agents.
Arrivals: The volume of new crop reaching the mandis. Heavy arrivals usually mean softer prices.

Besan: Flour milled from chana dal (de-husked desi chickpea).
Bilty: The lorry receipt issued by a transporter for goods booked with it; a 'bilty' purchase is grain bought from outside the local mandi and delivered by truck.
Buffer stock: Pulses held by the government (largely through NAFED) and released to cool prices when they spike.

Calibre: The size of a grain, measured by the screen aperture it passes over, such as 8, 9 or 10 mm for kabuli chana.
Chana: Chickpea (Cicer arietinum), also called gram or Bengal gram. India's largest pulse crop.
Chilka: With the skin on. Moong chilka is split moong that still carries its green skin.
Chuni: By-product of dal milling: husk, powder and broken bits, sold as cattle feed.
CIF: Cost, Insurance and Freight: an export price that includes sea freight and insurance to the buyer's port.
Conditioning: Treating pitted grain with oil or water so the husk loosens before de-husking.
Count: Number of grains per 100 g, used to express kabuli chana size. A lower count means bigger grain.

Dal: A pulse with its husk removed and the seed split into two halves.
Desi chana: The small, dark, angular chickpea. Becomes kala chana, chana dal and besan.

Ex-mill: A price for goods collected at the mill gate, before freight.
Extraneous matter: Anything in a lot that is not the pulse: dust, stones, straw, other seeds. Max 1% in tur dal under FSSAI.

FOB: Free on Board: an export price up to the goods being loaded on the vessel at the Indian port.
FSSAI: Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, which sets food standards and licenses food businesses.

HS code: Harmonized System code used in trade. Dried pulses fall under heading 0713; tur is 0713 60.

IEC: Importer Exporter Code, issued by DGFT. Needed for any import or export.
Import parity: The landed cost of imported grain. When it is below the domestic price, it caps the domestic market.

Kabuli chana: The large, cream-coloured chickpea, sold by size and used whole in chole, salads and hummus.
Kala chana: Whole desi chickpea with its brown-black skin.
Kharif: The monsoon crop season. Tur, moong and urad are sown in June and July.

Landed cost: The full cost of grain delivered to your door: price, freight, loading, taxes and handling.

Masoor: Lentil (Lens culinaris). Red masoor dal is the de-husked, split form.
Moisture: Water content of grain by weight. FSSAI allows at most 14% in tur dal; lower keeps better.
Moong: Green gram or mung bean (Vigna radiata). Yellow moong dal is de-husked and split.
MSP: Minimum Support Price: the price at which the government stands ready to buy a crop from farmers. Tur MSP for 2025-26 is ₹8,000 a quintal.

NAFED: National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India, a main agency for procuring pulses at MSP.

Pitting: Lightly scratching the seed coat before conditioning so oil or water can penetrate.
Polishing: A finishing step that tumbles dal with water or edible oil to make it look brighter. Unpolished dal skips it.
PSS: Price Support Scheme under PM-AASHA, through which pulses are procured at MSP.

Rabi: The winter crop season. Chana and masoor are sown in October and November.
RCMC: Registration-cum-Membership Certificate, issued to exporters by an export promotion body such as APEDA.

Sortex: An optical colour sorter that rejects discoloured grains and foreign matter with jets of air. A brand name now used for the machine type.

Tur: Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan), also toor or arhar. Its split, de-husked form is the most eaten dal in India.

Unit sale price: Price per standard unit, such as ₹ per kg, which must be printed on packs alongside the MRP.
Urad: Black gram (Vigna mungo). Urad dal is the base of idli, dosa and dal makhani.