Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
technology backup, favorable monsoon, increase in minimum support prices, and
effective government programs helped for the increase of production of pulses in
the country. The projected pulse requirement by the year 2030 is estimated at about
32 million tonnes (ICAR Vision 2030
2011
). In India, about dozen of pulse crops,
namely, chickpea, pigeon pea, mung bean, urdbean, lentil, field pea, lathyrus,
cowpea, common bean, moth bean, horse gram, and rice bean are cultivated on
22.47 million ha area under varied agroecological conditions. About 90 % of the
global pigeon pea, 75 % of chickpea, and 37 % of lentil area falls in India
(FAOSTAT
2009
). Globally, the pulse production in 2009 was 61.5 million tons
over an area of 70.6 million ha with an average yield of 871 kg/ha. Of these, beans
contributed about 32 % to global pulse production which was followed by dry peas
(17 %), chickpea (15.9 %), broad beans (7.5 %), lentils (5.7 %), cowpeas (6 %), and
pigeon pea (4 %). Among different nations, developing countries contribute about
74 % to the global pulse production, and the remaining comes from developed
countries. India, China, Brazil, Canada, Myanmar, and Australia are the major
pulse-producing countries with relative share of 25, 10, 5, 5, and 4 %, respectively.
Countries recording annual production growth of more than 4 % are Myanmar
(11.48 %), Canada (10.80 %), Germany (8.27 %), Sudan (8.08 %), Spain (7.37 %),
Ethiopia (4.92 %), China (4.67 %), and Syria (4.12 %) presented in ICAR Vision
2030
(2011)
. A few example of top pulse-producing countries are listed in
Table
8.1
.
8.3.1 Nutritional Value of Important Legumes
Pulses, sometimes called “grain legumes,” form an important component of the
dietary systems of many countries including India due to their high-protein and
essential amino acid content. In addition, pulses provide complex carbohydrates
and several vitamins and minerals. Like other plant-based foods, they contain no
cholesterol and little fat or sodium. Pulses also provide Fe, Mg, P, Zn, and other
minerals. The nutritive value of pulses, however, varies greatly among different
legumes (Table
8.2
) and plays a variety of roles in maintaining good health
(Schneider
2002
). Apart from their role in maintaining good human health, pulses
also play a key role in crop rotation due to their ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen in
association with symbiotic nitrogen fixers like rhizobia. To support the awareness
on this matter, the United Nations has declared 2016 the UN International Year of
Pulses.
