New Delhi, Aug 8 (KNN) India has restricted the imports of pigeon peas, which earlier was free, up to 200,000 tonnes.

The move comes at a time when the price of the lentil plunged more than 60 percent due to record production.

The restriction will help support local prices of pigeon peas in the world's biggest importer of the lentils, but will put pressure on producers such as Myanmar, Tanzania, Mozambique and Malawi which rely on exports to India.

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said in a notification, “Import policy of Pigeon Peas (Cajanus Cajan)/ Toor Daal…is revised from ‘free’ to ‘restricted’.

It said Import shall be subject to an annual (fiscal year) quota of 2 lakh MT as per procedure to be notified. This restriction will not apply to Government’s import commitments under any bilateral/ regional agreement/ MoU, said DGFT.

India had imported 703,540 tonnes pigeon peas, also known as arhar or tur locally, in 2016/17 fiscal year ended on March 31.

India's pigeon peas production jumped 80 percent to 4.6 million tonnes in 2016/17.