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Towards Self- sufficiency of Pulses in IndiaN.P. Singh1 and M.C. Saxena2

1ICAR-Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Kalyanpur-Kanpur (U.P.), India-208024 2International Dryland Development Commission Senior Advisor, Director General, ICARDA

Pulses constitute a very important dietary constituent for humans and animals because of their

richness with proteins (ranging from 20 to 27%, depending upon the crop species) and essential minerals,

vitamins and dietary fibres. The protein content of grain legumes is double that of wheat and three times

that of rice. Therefore, pulses as a complement to cereals, make one of the best solutions to protein-calorie

malnutrition. Beside proteins, these are also important source of the 15 essential minerals required by

human beings. Due to their diverse uses as atmospheric nitrogen fixing agents, green manure and cover

crops, catch crops in short season cropping windows, breakfast grains and ingredients of specialty diets,

pulses are an important subject of agricultural, environmental and biotechnological research.

In India, over a dozen pulse crops including chickpea, pigeonpea, cowpea, mungbean, urdbean,

lentil, French bean, horse gram, field pea, moth bean, lathyrus, etc. are grown in one or the other part of the

country. However, the most important pulse crops grown here are chickpea (41% of total pulses area i.e.

23.37 m. ha), pigeonpea (15%), urdbean (10%), mungbean (9%), cowpea (7%), lentil (5%) and fieldpea (5%)

(Table 2). State-wise, the highest share of pulses comes from Madhya Pradesh (24% of total pulse

production i.e. 17.15 m.ton), followed by Uttar Pradesh (16%), Maharashtra (14%), Andhra Pradesh (10%),

Karnataka (7%) and Rajasthan (6%), which together share about 77% of the total national pulse production

while the remaining 23% is contributed by Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand and other states of

the country. During the last few years the production of pulses in the country has witnessed an upward

trend and it has consistently remained >17 million tonnes since 2010. The latest production figure of 19.78

million tonnes for the year 2013-14 has been an all time high record. This has been a path-breaking

achievement for the country towards achieving self sufficiency in pulses which has been a long pending

demand. Looking retrospectively, the scenario was entirely different during the 1 st decade of this century

when the total production of pulses was stagnating at around 14-15 million tones. The deficit was to the

tune of 4-5 million tones which was mainly compensated by import from other countries. However,

encouraged by the accomplishment of last few years and tremendous opportunities available for vertical and

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horizontal expansion of pulses in the country, the future seems to be promising towards achieving self

sufficiency.

Table 1. Summary of the total area, production, import and availability of pulses in India since 2009-10

2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15Area (m ha) 23.3 26.4 24.5 25.21 23.47 23.37Yield (kg/ha) 630 694 690 781 785 735Production (m. ton) 14.7 18.2 17.1 18.34 19.78 17.15Import (m. ton) 3.4 2.5 3.3 3.5 3.09 4.58Total availability (m. ton)

18.1 20.7 20.4 21.84 22.86 21.78

Source: IFPRI; DES, DAC, DoC

Table 2.Commodity-wise availability of pulses in India during 2013-14

Crop Season Domestic Production

(m. ton)

Imports (m. ton)

Total availability(m. ton)

Pigeonpea (Arhar/ tur) Kharif 3.34 - 3.34Gram (Chana) Rabi 9.79 0.30 10.09Urad Kharif 1.18 - 1.18

Rabi 0.41 - 0.41Total 1.59 - 1.59

Moong Kharif 0.97 - 0.97Rabi 0.31 - 0.31Total 1.28 - 1.28

Others (lentil, peas, rajmash, cowpea, horsegram, etc.)

Kharif 0.76 0.94 (beans) 1.70Rabi 3.01 0.54 (lentils);

1.31 (peas)4.86

Total 3.77 - 3.77Total pulses Kharif 6.25 0.94 7.19

Rabi 13.52 2.15 15.67Total 19.77 3.09 22.86

Source: http://www.ifpri.org

Area, Production and Productivity

India has been a leader in production as well as consumption of pulses in the world. During 2012-13,

the total pulse production in India was 18.34 million tonnes (up by 7.31% over the previous year) which

further increased by another 7.85% in 2013-14 with a production of 19.78 million tones, touching an all time

high record (Table 1). During 2014-15, the production witnessed a slight setback due to hostile weather

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conditions and the production tallied at 17.15 million tones. However, this seems to be a temporary phase

and is likely to be compensated by better production figures in the coming years. The positive trend in

production scenario has sustained since last four years. Looking retrospectively at the growth rate of area,

production, yield and other important aspects of pulses, a positive and significant growth (1.17% annually)

has been observed in area after 2000-01 although it was not significant for the overall period of three

decades between 1970 to 2000. Similarly, the growth in case of production as well as for productivity during

2000 to 2012 was also positive and higher than that of the preceding three decades. Interestingly, the

growth rate in pulse production (2.61% annual) during this decade has been even higher than the growth

rate of rice (1.59% per decade), wheat (1.89% per decade) and all the cereals put together (1.88% per

decade). Among different pulses, individually the highest growth rate was observed in chickpea (5.89%)

followed by pigeonpea (2.61%). During the period from 1950-51 to 2013-14, the CAGR in area under total

pulses at 0.08 per cent over 6 decade was much lower than the total food grains (0.21% over 6 decade), rice

(0.58% over 6 decade), wheat (1.7% over 6 decade) and oilseeds (1.4% over 6 decade). The significant fall in

pulses cultivation in the 1960s and in the early 1970s was primarily due to the substitution of pulse

cultivation with high yielding varieties (HYV) of cereals, especially wheat, following the introduction of Green

Revolution technologies, especially in Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh. The area under chickpea

cultivation was reduced while rainfed kharif pulses like pigeonpea were not affected due to diversion of area

to cereals. Thus, low productivity coupled with loss of area has definitely affected the production of pulses.

There are a number of factors which together contributed in significant rise of production in pulse

crops including concerted efforts of researchers, involvement of various government agencies, policy makers

and the pulse growers, and support of good environmental conditions. More than 550 improved varieties in

different pulses, availability of their quality seed, improved pulse production and protection technologies,

active government involvement and policy support led to an upward growth in pulses production in India.

Chickpea contributed the most in increased production it witnessed a record production of 9.93 mt during

2013-14.

Table 3. Recent trends in area, production and productivity of pulses in India

Year Area (m. ha) Production (m. ton) Yield (Kg/ha)

2007-08 23.63 14.76 625

2008-09 22.09 14.57 659

2009-10 23.28 14.66 630

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2010-11 26.28 18.24 694

2011-12 24.78 17.09 690

2012-13 23.26 18.34 789

2013-14 25.21 19.78 785

2014-15 23.37 17.15 735

Source: http://agricoop.nic.in/

Pulses as a source of nutrition

Nutritional value of pulses is quite high as compared to most of the cereals. The pulse protein is low

in sulphur-containing amino acids but is rich in lysine, an amino-acid that is deficient in many cereals.

Therefore, when pulses are added in cereal-based vegetarian diets, their nutritive quality comes on at par

with animal proteins. Pulses are also good sources of the B-group vitamins apart from riboflavin. Although

pulses are devoid of vitamin C, a large amount of ascorbic acid is formed during their germination. During

the sprouting process vitamins, minerals and protein increase substantially, with a corresponding decrease

in calories and carbohydrate content, which leads to an improvement in nutritive value and digestibility of

the pulses. Sprouting of the pulses not only improves nutritive value but also their digestibility. A number of

studies have been conducted for estimating genetic variability for protein content as well as some micro-

and macro nutrients among number of accessions of various pulses. These studies show a large amount of

genetic variability for most of these traits. Protein content in different pulses varies from 26.5 to 57% in

soybean, 20.9 to 29.2% in common bean, 15.8 to 32.1 % in pea, 22 to 36% in fababean, 19 to 32% in lentil,

16 to 28% in chickpea, 16 to 31% in cowpea, 21 to 31% in mungbean and 16 to 24% in pigeon pea (Table 4).

The carbohydrate content in pulses is about 60 per cent. 1040 to 1430 kJ per 100 g energy is provided per

100 g of pulses (similar to cereal grains), mostly by their carbohydrates rather than fat. The mono and

oligosaccharides represent only a small per cent of total carbohydrate in pulses, whereas starch is the most

abundant carbohydrate. Pulses generally have high amylose content. Among the sugars, raffinose,

stachyose, verbascose, ajugose and pentosans are predominant in most of the pulses. These sugars escape

digestion in the gut and are fermented in the large bowel and can cause abdominal discomfort and

flatulence if pulses are consumed in abundance. However, soaking pulses overnight in water helps to reduce

the content of these sugars. Pulses are low in fats (1-6 %) most of which is provided by polyunsaturated and

monounsaturated fatty acids. They are also fairly good sources of thiamin and niacin and provide calcium,

phosphorus and iron. The nutritional profile of major pulses is described in Table 4 below:

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Table 4. Nutritional profile of pulse grains ( /100g, on average basis)

Pulse crop Energy (Kcal) Protein (g) Fat (g) Carbohydrates (g)

Total dietary fiber (%)

Chickpea (Cicer arietinim L.)

368 21.0 5.7 61 22.7

Pigeonpea (Cajanus canjan L.)

342 21.7 1.49 62 15.5

Lentil (lens culinaris Medik )

346 27.2 1.0 60 11.5

Mungbean (Vigna radiata L.)

345 25.0 1.1 62.6 16.3

Urdbean (Vigna mungo L.)

347 24.0 1.6 63.4 -

Fielpea (Pisum sativum L.)

345 25.1 0.8 61.8 13.4

Rajmash (Phaseolus vugaris L.)

345 23.0 1.3 62.7 17.7

Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata)

346 28.0 0.3 63.4 18.2

Horsegram (Macrotyloma uniflorum)

321 23.6 2.3 59.1 15.0

Mothbean (Vigna aconitifolius)

330 24.0 1.5 61.9 -

Source: Technical Bulletin Pulses for human health and nutrition, IIPR, Kanpur

Per capita Net Availability of Total Pulses in India

Per capita availability of pulses in India has seen an upward movement during the last two decades although

it is still low as compared to the recommendations of ICMR of 52g/capita/day. The current per capita

availability is estimated at 41.6 g/capita/day which was quite low (31.8 g) in 2000. The current availability is

quite significant from nutritional point of view since besides pulses, there are now a number of other options

such as milk and milk products, meat, eggs, etc. available to consumers for meeting their daily dietary

protein requirement. The progressive trend in per capita availability of pulses is indicated in the following

table:

Table 5: Per capita Net Availability of Total Pulses in India

Year AvailabilityPer day (Grams) Per Annum (Kg)

2000 31.8 11.62001 30.0 10.92002 35.4 12.9

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2003 29.1 10.62004 35.8 13.12005 31.5 11.52006 32.5 11.82007 35.5 12.92008 41.8 15.32009 37.0 13.52010 35.4 12.92011 43.0 14.42012 41.6 15.2

Source: www.dacnet.nic.in

Targets for achieving self sufficiency in pulses in India

In order to ensure self sufficiency, the current pulses requirement in the country is estimated at 22.5 million

tones. Keeping in view the trends in population growth rate and that several other options besides pulses

are now available for meeting protein requirements of the people due to change in food habits of masses,

the pulse requirement in the country is projected at 32 million tonnes by the year 2030 and 39 million

tonnes by the year 2050. This necessitates an annual growth rate of 2.2% requiring a phenomenal shift in

research, technology generation, its dissemination, and commercialization along with capacity building in

frontier areas of research. Keeping in view the availability of land, population growth pattern and

technological developments, five-yearly projections have been made. In every five year interval productivity

will have to be enhanced by an average of about 80 kg/ha over the previous one to achieve a final

productivity rate of 950 kg/ha by the end of 2025 and 1335 kg/ha by the end of 2050. The above-stated

projections have been made assuming that practically it will be feasible to increase about 4 million ha

additional area under pulses.

Yield gap

In most of the pulses, there is a huge gap between the potential yield and the realized yield. It is evident that

the actual productivity of different pulses is considerably lower as compared to their potential yield as well

as that realized on farm demonstrations (Table 6). One of the most important reasons behind low

productivity in pulses is that these are generally grown in poor and marginal lands with minimum inputs.

About 87% of the pulses cultivation in the country is rainfed. Many farmers still use old varieties and grow

their home-saved seeds. Further they sow the seeds year-after-year and that too through broadcasting

instead of line sowing and hence are not able to maintain recommended plant population in the fields.

Farmers also do not use pre-emergence herbicides to control the initial weed growth. This leads to heavy

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investment on manual labour and also decreases economic yield. Farm mechanization is lagging far behind

in pulses cultivation in the country. Most of the farmers are generally resorting to manual operations right

from sowing to harvesting. This not only increases cost of cultivation and drudgery but also leads to more

economical losses. Further many farmers still do not follow recommended practices for pulses cultivation.

Instead they prefer to follow their age old traditional way and do not adopt disease and pest management

recommendations.

Table 6: Yield gap in different pulse crops

S. No. Crop Potential Yield (Kg/ha)

Realized yield (Kg/ha)

Present Status (Kg/ha)

1. Chickpea 1800 1435 10142. Pigeonpea 1800 1433 7923. Mungbean 1400 843 4324. Urdbean 1300 890 5965. Lentil 1400 1047 7976. Fieldpea 2500 1394 11057. Lathyrus 1200 772 7428. Cowpea 1300 794 8149. Horsegram 800 536 415

10. Mothbean 1100 831 280 Source: IIPR, Pulses (Front Line Demonstrations). Potential Yield is in FLD; Realized yield is the yield in

farmers’ field; Present status is the average yield at national level

Geographical shift

During the past three decades, the cultivation of pulses has witnessed an unprecedented geographical shift,

catalyzed mainly by assured irrigation facilities becoming available in the Indo-Gangetic plains (IGP), which

used to be the pulse basket of the country till the 1970s. The area under pulses in IGP was replaced largely

by wheat, rice and maize due to assured irrigation facilities. However, reduction in area under pulses in IGP

was compensated to some extent by an increase in area in central and southern parts of India and states like

Andhra Pradesh becoming the leader in total pulse production with an average increase in the yield of two of

major pulses, chickpea and pigeonpea by about 81-100 % during the last two decades (1991-2010).

Consequently, the total pulses area in central and south India increased from 11.34 million hectares to 15.01

million hectares. The short duration chickpea varieties developed by ICAR-SAU in collaboration with ICRISAT

played a key role in expanding the area and productivity of chickpea in southern India. Similarly, while the

area of lentil increased significantly in Madhya Pradesh, and pigeonpea in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka,

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development and adoption of appropriate varieties led to increase in area, production and yield of lentil in

Jharkhand and Rajasthan. An increasing trend was also observed in the area under mungbean and urdbean

in north India; the area almost doubled along with a significant increase in productivity.

During the XI Plan period alone, significant improvement in production and productivity of total

pulses was observed in Jharkhand, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. In chickpea, there was a positive growth in

area, production and productivity in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, and Maharashtra. Production of pigeonpea

was enhanced by about 2.53 lakh tonnes in Karnataka, 1.26 lakh tonnes in Gujarat and 1.13 lakh tonnes in

Andhra Pradesh. Similarly, significant area expansion of pigeonpea by 1.13 lakh ha was noticed in Karnataka,

and 0.74 lakh ha in Andhra Pradesh. With the development of short-duration varieties, there was expansion

of mungbean in summer season under rice-wheat system in north India. Similarly, in peas also, there was a

significant increase in area and production in Uttar Pradesh (1.17 lakh ha and 1.8 lakh tonnes).

Import-export status

Although there has been an impressive growth of pulses in the country, import has also shown a

positive trend over the years while the export remained almost stagnant. With a growth rate of 9.09% per

decade for import of pulses between 1981 and 2012, the growth in terms of value of imports was 16.26%

per decade. Nevertheless, the growth in import of pulses has slowed down to 12.16% per year after 2000-01.

This has a direct relation with increasing production of pulses in the country as well as with the fact that the

export of pulses had been banned from India since June 27, 2006, except for the export of commercially

important kabuli chickpea (50,000 mt) and 10,000 tonnes of organic pulses and lentil. Owing to these

factors, the growth in export of pulses was observed to be negative (-2.41% per year) for the period 2000-01

to 2011-12. Ban on export of pulses was further extended for one more year to enhance the domestic

supply. Further, customs duty on import of pulses had also been reduced to zero with effect from June 8,

2006 and this was extended up to 31st March 2014. Due to this, the per capita availability of pulses also

showed a significantly positive trend during 2000 to 2012 with a growth of 2.10%. India also exports pulses

to some extent, especially the kabuli chickpea and lentils. During 2013-14, India exported 3.43 million tones

of pulses which is estimated to drop at 1.9 million tonnes during 2014-15.

Major pulse based cropping systems in India

Pulses being important constituents of subsistence farming in India, find a place in almost all major

cropping systems of the country. The important intercropping systems followed in India are pigeonpea +

sorghum/groundnut/mungbean/urdbean/cotton in the central zone (CZ) and south zone (SZ) and piegonpea +

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maize/sorghum in north west plain zone (NWPZ) and the north east plain zone (NEPZ) in kharif season and

chickpea/lentil + mustard/sunflower/linseed in NWPZ, NEPZ and CZ in rabi season (Table 7). Pigeonpea-wheat

and urdbean/mungbean-wheat in NWPZ, maize/sorghum/pearl millet- chickpea/lentil in central and south

zone and rice-rice-mungbean in south zone are important sequential cropping systems. The most important

cropping systems followed in different states of the country are presented in Table 7 below.

Table 7. Important pulse-based cropping systems in major pulse growing area of the country

S. No.

Cropping System States

1 Medium/late pigeonpea (sole cropping) U.P., Bihar, Karnataka, M.P.

2 Pigeonpea – wheat Haryana, Punjab, U.P, north Rajasthan

3 Early pigeonpea + groundnut A.P., Gujarat, T.N.

4 Medium duration pigeonpea +sorghum/ soybean

M.P., Western U.P., Maharastra, T.N

5 Urdbean/Mungbean-wheat /chickpea M.P., Maharashtra, Karnataka, U.P.

6 Urdbean/Mungbean-Rabi sorghum Maharashtra, Karnataka

7 Cotton+ urdbean/ mungbean A.P. and TN

8 Cotton+ Pigeonpea Maharashtra, A.P., Gujarat, TN

9 Fallow/ fodder sorghum-chickpea /lentil +mustard

Bundelkhand region of U.P. & M.P.

10 Rice- Lentil/ chickpea/ fieldpea Eastern U.P., Bihar,

11 Rice-mungbean/ urdbean Orissa, West Bengal, Assam

12 Pearlmillet /fallow –chickpea Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra

13 Maize-Rajmash + Potato Eastern and Central UP,

14 Maize- rabi pigeonpea UP., north Bihar, W.B., Assam

15 Maize-chickpea U.P., M.P., A.P., Maharashtra, Karnataka

16 Maize-Rajmash - mungbean Central and eastern UP., north Bihar

17 Maize-Potato / mustard - mungbean / urdbean Punjab, Haryana, Western UP

18 Spring sugarcane + mungbean / urdbean Eastern UP, Bihar, West Bengal

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19 Rice- Rice-mungbean/urdbean Orissa, parts of Karnataka, TN, AP.

20 Rice-wheat-mungbean Western UP, Punjab, Haryana

21 Maize-wheat-mungbean Western and Eastern UP, Bihar

Source: AICRP – Pulses

In peninsular India, the major pulse crops grown are pigeonpea, mungbean and urdbean while

chickpea, soybean and horse gram, cowpea and other arid legumes are also grown on a large area. In

Odisha and coastal parts of West Bengal, mungbean and urdbean are cultivated during rabi season as a sole

crop. In northern India pigeonpea-wheat cropping system is the most prevalent. Short duration varieties of

mungbean and urdbean are being grown as sole crop as well as intercropped during spring/summer

seasons. Short duration mungbean during summer season in Punjab and parts of Haryana on wheat fallows

and short duration mungbean mixed with pearl millet/sesame during kharif in Rajasthan are also popular.

In central India while chickpea is grown under rainfed condition as a mono crop or intercropped with

linseed and safflower, other pulses are sown generally intercropped with oilseed crops and to some extent

with millets. Maize/sorghum + pigeonpea, maize/sorghum + urdbean/mungbean, groundnut + pigeonpea,

cotton + mungbean/urdbean and cotton + pigeonpea are some of the most important cropping systems in

this region (Table 8).

Table 8. Prominent intercropping systems involving pulses in six major pulse growing states of India

State Intercropping systemUttar Pradesh Pigeonpea + pearl millet/sorghum/castor/maize/urdbean/mungbean

Sugarcane + urdbean/mungbean/fieldpea/chickpeaPearl millet + urdbean/mungbeanChickpea + wheat/linseed/barley/mustardSunflower + urdbean/mungbeanPotato + common bean

Madhya Pradesh

Pigeonpea + pearl millet/sorghum/urdbean/mungbean/soybean/castor/soybeanPearl millet + mungbean/urdbeanChickpea + mustard/wheat/barley/linseedFieldpea+ mustardLentil + linseed/mustard/barleyCotton + pigeonpea

Maharashtra Pigeonpea + sorghum/maizeCotton + pigeonpea/mungbean/urdbeanGroundnut + pigeonpea

Rajasthan Pearl millet + urdbean/mungbean/cowpea,

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Clusterbean + mothbeanSorghum + mothbeanChickpea + sunflower

Andhra Pradesh

Pigeonpea + groundnut/castorChickpea + sunflowerRice + mungbean/urdbean

Karnataka Pigeonpea + horsegram/cowpea/millets/groundnutFinger millet + horsegramChickpea + sunflower

There is a tremendous scope of increasing the area as well as productivity of pulses in the rice fallow

areas of entire Peninsular region. Similarly, in the wheat-based cropping systems of northern India, summer

cultivation of mungbean can be promoted to a greater extent. For sustaining and improvement of crop

productivity as well as improvement of soil health, pulses need to be incorporated in rice-based cropping

systems in the different rice growing areas in the peninsular India including the deltaic regions of important

virus viz., Krishna, Kaveri , Godavari, etc. (Mishra and Muthaiah, 2003).

Major Constraints in increasing pulses production

The area under pulses cultivation in the country is currently estimated at about 22-23 million

hectares while the realized productivity is less than 1 ton per hectare. Shortfall in pulses availability has been

attributed to a number of factors, the major being ever-increasing population, geographical shift, abrupt

climatic changes, complex disease-pest syndrome, socio-economic conditions of the farmers and lesser

market opportunities. Pulse production in India is generally undertaken by small and marginal farmers,

mostly as subsistence farming. Stagnant area over the years is one of the major supply constraints in pulses.

Limited availability of cultivable land, stagnation in cropping intensity due to absence of irrigation facilities

and depleting water resources, have relegated pulses to poor returns. Cultivation of pulses on poor soils

under rainfed conditions with minimum inputs and care subject these crops to severe yield losses not only

due to edaphic, abiotic and socio-economic factors but also due to confounding effects of various biotic

stresses. High influence of environmental factors and their interactions with genotype (G×E interaction) are

the major production constraint in pulses which lead to a limited gain in terms of productivity in most of the

pulses. Yield losses caused by various fungal, bacterial and viral diseases and nematodes are enormous

besides parasitic weed menace at various growth stages. Being rich in protein, several insect-pests also

cause yield losses to food legumes both under field conditions and in storage.

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Since majority of pulses are cultivated under rainfed and monsoon dependent areas where soil

moisture is the critical factor determining the productivity, the production trends keeps fluctuating every

year depending upon rainfall pattern. Besides, the other major constraints that limit the realization of

potential yield of pulses include biotic and abiotic stresses prevalent in the pulse-growing areas and the

socio-economic factors. Among biotic stresses, fusarium wilt coupled with root rot complex is probably the

most widespread disease causing substantial losses in chickpea crop. While fusarium wilt, sterility mosaic

and phytophthora blight cause substantial losses in pigeonpea, yellow mosaic, cercospora leaf spot and

powdery mildew are considered as the most important diseases in both mungbean and urdbean. In lentil,

the rust and wilt cause considerable damage. Among key insect-pests, gram pod borer (Helicoverpa

armigera) in chickpea and pigeonpea, pod fly in pigeonpea, whitefly, jassids and thrips in dry beans cause

severe damage to the respective crops. Weeds also cause substantial loss to pulses. Recently, nematodes

have emerged as potential threat to the successful cultivation of pulses in many areas.

Among abiotic stresses, drought and high temperature at terminal stage, cold as well as sudden drop

in temperature coupled with fog during the reproductive phase and salinity/alkalinity throughout the crop

period inflict major yield losses and instability in production. All these stresses make pulse crops less

productive with unstable performance in one or the other way. Besides the above factors, inadequate seed

replacement rate, limited policy directives and incentives and poor storage facilities of the farm produce

including storage pests add to the problems of the Indian pulse farmers.

Impact of technology demonstrations

A number of area and season specific varieties have been developed in different pulses which are not only

high yielding but are also resistant to most of the disease and insect-pests. These varieties have proven their

potential in farmers’ fields as also in large scale demonstrations. It has been demonstrated that improved

varieties of pulses have a positive impact of 15-20 % in increasing pulses production in all major pulse crops

including chickpea, mungbean, urdbean and lentil while in pigeonpea, improved varieties increase the yield

by 10-12%. Further, a large number of crop production, management and protection technologies have been

developed for pulses the potential of which has been shown in large scale demonstrations as well. Such

technologies include:

Weed management through application of Pendimethaline (30 EC) @ 1.0 Kg a. i. / ha as pre-

emergence application and Imazethapyr @ 70-80 g/ha as post-emergence application at 20-25 DAS

during kharif season after assuring the germination of weed.

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Seed treatment with 5 ml of Imidacloprid (17.8 SL) / kg seed followed by usual plant growth

promoting agents (PGPA) seed inoculation.

Control of thrips by spraying Imidachloprid (17.8 SL) dissolving 3 ml in 10 liters of water @ 600 to

800 liters of solutions .

Adoption of life saving irrigations in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra,

Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Seed priming by soaking seeds for 6-8 hours in water (Chattisgarh, Bundelkhand region, Bihar, West

Bengal, Odisha and Assam).

Ridge planting of pigeonpea in high rainfall and low lying plain areas. Use of critical nutrients such as

sulphur @ 20-25 Kg/ha.

Adoption of efficient and remunerative cropping systems viz. rice-wheat-mungbean, pigeonpea-

wheat and maize / sorghum / pearl millet-chickpea / lentil .

Seed inoculation with efficient strains of Rhizobium and phosphate solubilizing bacteria (PSB) @ 15-

20 g/kg seed led to 10-15 % increase in yield over un-inoculated control .

Raised bed planting for population management and ridge & furrow system to conserve and

enhance water use efficiency in pigeonpea.

100 kg DAP per ha along with basal application of Sulphur @ 20 kg and Zinc @15 kg/ha. Seed

treatment of chickpea and lentil with Mo.

Seed treatment with Thiram + carbendazim (2:1) @ 3 gm per kg of seed to ensure good plant stand.

Bio-control of soil borne diseases by use of Trichoderma + carboxin (4 + 1g/kg seed) has been

recommended.

Use of Pheromone traps (@ 4-5 traps/ha) for control of pod borer in chickpea and pigeonpea.

Due to several initiatives taken by the Government/ICAR, the production of pulses increased tremendously

during the periods 2010- 2014 recording 19.78 million tonnes in 2013-14. The dissemination of technologies

and good quality seed to the pulse growing farmers has led to this unprecedented growth in pulses. The

frontline demonstrations clearly indicated the potential of new technologies (Table 9).

Table 9. Impact of technologies as evident from frontline demonstrations conducted during 2007-14

Crop No. of FLDs Improved practice

Local practice % gain

2007-14

14

Chickpea 4581 1518 1279 18.68Pigeonpea 6220 1425 1127 26.4Mungbean 3411 867 730 19.14Urdbean 2338 913 782 17.16Lentil 1986 1092 890 22.68Fieldpea 1092 1415 1171 21.582012-14Chickpea 1431 1498 1195 25.0Pigeonpea 1116 1477 1141 29.4Mungbean 450 755 611 23.06Urdbean 494 959 788 21.34Lentil 130 835 633 31.54Fieldpea 70 1195 890 33.93

Source: IIPR (Front Line Demonstration data)

Availability of quality seed

Seed is the most critical input as far as productivity of pulses is concerned. Quality seed not only ensures

genetic purity but also ensures good germination and optimum population per unit area to get good crop

stand. To ensure quality seed availability in the country the following measures need to be adopted

immediately:

Adoption and promotion of new varieties by bringing them into seed chain by the state

departments.

Production of Truthfully Level Seed (TL seed) at research institutions and SAUs as well as at KVK

farms and their distribution to farmers.

One cycle multiplication of certified seed at KVKs farms before their demonstration/distribution to

farmers.

Continuing subsidies for few additional years for those mega varieties which are very popular and

have huge seed indent but are going to be phased out of seed chain due to completion of time

period.

Strengthening infra structures of research farms and KVKs for increasing seed multiplication ratios

and developing/ strengthening seed processing and storage facilities.

The following quantities of quality seeds (Table 10) will be required in the country in next 2 years at 30%

seed replacement rate to ensure availability of quality seeds:

Table 10. Requirement of quality seed in the country to ensure 30% seed replacement rate

S. No. Crop Quality seed (Lakh q) Breeder seed (q)

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1. Chickpea 21.10 105002. Pigeonpea 1.92 1203. Mungbean 1.79 2274. Urdbean 2.06 2835. Lentil 1.87 13316. Fieldpea 1.88 1362

In chickpea, the present level of breeder seed production in the country is 7200 q against the indent of 6800

q (Table 11). The ruling varieties are JAKI 9218, JG 11, GNG 1581,JG 130, JG 322, Vijay, JG 14, JG 6, Digvijay,

JG 63. Among these mega-varieties, JG 11, JG 16, JG 322 and Vijay are more than 15 years old and need to be

gradually substituted by new varieties in next five years with continuous subsidy on them. States like M.P.,

A.P., Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Karnataka are the major indenter’s whereas Karnataka, Jharkhand and U.P.

are placing low indent. The states should place more indent as the total breeder seed requirement for 30 %

SRR is about 10,500 quintals. Likewise, in pigeonpea the mega varieties are ICPL 87119, ICP 8863. Bahar,

UPAS 120 and NDA1 having the maximum seed indent and need to be supported by subsidy for few

additional years before they are gradually phased out. Similarly, in mungbean, Samrat, SML 668, HUM 12,

IPM 02-3 and Pant Mung 5; in urdbean Pant Urd 31, IPU 2-43, Shekhar 2, Uttara and TAU1; in lentil HUL 57,

Pant L 8, DPL 62, Noori and Mallika and in fieldpea HUDP 15, KPMR 400, Vikas and Prakash are the most

popular varieties covering a large area and need government support in the form of continued subsidy to

sustain the seed requirement in next few years.

Table 11: Breeder Seed Production (q):

Crop 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 Chickpea 9735.51 8849.67 11717.90 11141.21 10452.06 9656.99 Pigeonpea 644.15 539.13 1097.99 1317.20 781.60 673.80 Mungbean 950.93 1168.65 1077.60 1052.93 1381.20 714.76 Urdbean 379.40 617.15 800.11 819.85 1030.65 493.27 Lentil 414.34 515.96 458.99 531.37 717.77 691.74 Fieldpea 1210.66 1303.60 997.25 946.34 959.34 635.48 Total 13334.99 12994.16 16149.84 15808.90 15322.62 12866.04

Source: AICRPs Annual Reports

The average seed replacement rate (SRR) of pulses in India was about 25% at the end of 2011 (Table 12). The highest SRR was in case of urdbean (34.41%) followed by mungbean (30.29%), pigeonpea (22.16%) gram (19.35 %).

Table 12: Seed Replacement Rate of major pulse crops:Years Chickpea Pigeonpea Mungbean Urdbean 2001 4.17 8.71 13.47 16.55

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2002 4.23 8.84 13.8 17.06 2003 7.09 13.6 19.48 20.48 2004 9.87 9.80 12.34 17.24 2005 9.41 10.48 12.50 15.70 2006 9.04 11.56 19.97 13.65 2007 11.90 16.05 21.75 23.89 2008 14.38 16.02 21.94 26.31 2009 21.97 27.79 23.01 30.91 2010 18.38 17.51 26.68 29.19 2011 19.35 22.16 30.29 34.41 Source: http://agricoop.nic.in

Constraints in Quality seed production of pulses:

Among major production constraints, availability of quality seed of improved varieties has been a major

constraint in enhancing production and productivity of pulses in India. This is primarily due to lack of

organized seed production programme for pulses. We still lack a proper medium term (4-5 years) seed

rolling plan for major pulse producing states of the country. The indent for breeder seed is quite low in many

cases including indent for old and obsolete varieties. There is poor conversion of breeder seed to foundation

and certified seed. Unfortunately, even true picture of conversion of breeder seed to foundation and

certified seed is not available for most the states. To insure timely availability of quality seed, capabilities of

seed production must be enhanced with introduction of contractual obligation component by involving seed

societies, farmers, private sectors and NGO’s besides SAU’s, Indian Institute of Pulses Research and State

Seed Corporations. Participation of growers in seed production should be encouraged by way of simplifying

the registration and seed certification procedures.

A provision was made under Integrated Scheme of Oilseed, Pulses, Maize and Oilpalm (ISOPOM) for

supporting involvement of private sector agencies including NGOs, farmer societies and Self Help Groups in

implementation of ISOPOM programmes, particularly in the activities like seed production, extension

support and to conduct frontline and block demonstrations, IPM demonstrations, etc.

Minimum Support Price

In order to give the much needed fillip to pulse production, the government has included pulses in the

National Food Security Mission (along with wheat and rice). Over the past five years, the increase in MSP

was tremendous in each of the pulse crop and their inclusion in NFSM will further give the much required

impetus to their vertical and horizontal growth. Among rabi pulses MSP for chickpea for MY 2014-15 was

fixed at Rs. 3,100 per quintal and lentil at Rs, 2,950 per quintal. The following table (Table 13) describes the

progressive increase in minimum support price of major pulse in the country.

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Table 13: Minimum Support Price (Rs./q) of major pulses

Year Chickpea Pigeonpea Mungbean Urdbean Lentil 2000-01 1100 1200 1200 1200 1200 2001-02 1200 1320 1320 1320 1300 2002-03 1220 1320 1330 1330 1320 2003-04 1400 1360 1370 1370 1500 2004-05 1425 1390 1410 1410 - 2005-06 1435 1400 1520 1520 1535 2006-07 1445 1410 1520 1520 1545 2007-08 1600 1550 1700 1700 1200 2008-09 1730 2000 2520 2520 1870 2009-10 1760 2300 2760 2520 1870 2010-11 2100 3000 3170 2900 2250 2011-12 2800 3200 3500 3300 2800 2012-13 3000 3850 4400 4300 2900 2013-14 3100 4300 4500 4300 2950 2014-15 3175 4350 4600 4350 3100 2015-16 - 4625 4850 4625 -Source: http://agricoop.nic.in/

Policy initiatives:

Realizing the yield gaps due to poor seed replacement rate and inadequate dissemination of pulses

cultivation technologies, several programmes viz., National Food Security Mission (NFSM) –Pulses,

Accelerated Pulses Production Programme (A3P), Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna (RKVY), 60,000 Pulses Villages,

etc. were launched during the XI Plan period to boost pulses production in the country with technological

back up and interventions of National Agricultural Research System and well planned financial support of

Planning Commission and Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India. Region-specific, cost effective and system-

based technological know-how and packages of pulses were disseminated among the farmers through

farmers’ participatory research and extension, on–farm demonstrations, front line demonstrations, and skill

based training to bridge the gap between potential and realized yield in pulses. Inclusion and adoption of

improved varieties of different pulse crops under different farming systems also helped in increasing

productivity per unit area. The policy initiatives such as increasing the minimum support price by the

Government also encouraged the farmers to take up pulse cultivation as a profitable venture.

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Quality seed acts as a prime input to realize the potential of all other inputs. However, non-availability of

quality seeds remains one of the greatest impediments in improving productivity. Under the National Food

Security Mission, breeder seed production was doubled. Involvement of private seed agencies, NGOs and

farmers associations besides farmers’ participatory seed production programme had been encouraged

besides firming up public sector seed production.

Future Directions

Although the production of pulses in the country has tremendously improved during the last 4-5 years, it is

still not sufficient to meet the present domestic requirement of about 22-23 million tones. Since most of the

pulses are largely cultivated in monsoon dependent areas with minimal inputs, the production trends keep

fluctuating every year. Assuming a moderate requirement of 35g pulses per capita per day with 10%

additional need for seeds, feed, wastage, etc., the projected pulse requirement by the year 2050 will be

about 39 million tonnes. This necessitates an annual growth rate of 2.14 %. For achieving this goal, the

average pulse productivity needs to be enhanced to about 1200 kg/ha and about 4-5 million hectare

additional area has to be brought under pulses, besides ensuring a drastic reduction in post-harvest losses.

This requires a phenomenal shift in research and technology generation, its dissemination as well as

commercialization along with capacity building in frontier areas of research. Presently, chickpea alone shares

about 45% of the total pulses production of the country followed by pigeonpea, mungbean, urdbean and

other pulses. However, irrigated pulses comprising greengram, blackgram and fieldpea can largely

compensate the projected yield gap. There is an ample scope of horizontal expansion of greengram and

blackgram in Indo-Gangetic plains during Spring/Summer season as well in rice fallows of southern India.

Recently developed short duration varieties of pulses enabled extensive cultivation of chickpea in central

and south India, and summer mungbean in Rajasthan and western Uttar Pradesh. The geographical shift in

pulses is an indication of their potentialities to adapt to diverse climatic conditions thus enabling their future

expansion in new niches. High production of pulses during last few years could be possible primarily due to

availability of quality seeds and proven technological back up.

There is potential for expanding pulse cultivation in irrigated and rainfed regions through cropping system

manipulation, crop intensification and new niches. At present, approximately 10.5 m ha area under rice-

wheat system offers scope for introduction of pulses to sustain the system productivity. Likewise, rice

fallows of eastern India and coastal regions can be efficiently utilized by utera (paira) cropping of lentil,

urdbean and mungbean. There is scope to grow pulses in inter-row space of crops like sugarcane, pearl

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millets, and sorghum. It is expected that at least 2.5 million ha area can be brought under horizontal

expansion through appropriate cropping systems.

Apart from area expansion, the following issues may help in increasing the pulse production:

Procurement: Assured procurement and inclusion of pulses in public distribution system in at least the

major pulse growing states will attract farmers in taking pulses cultivation as remunerative enterprise. This

will have a positive effect in improving the area under pulses cultivation. Purchase of pulse grains from

farmers at market price when the market price is high and purchase at MSP when the market price is low

will encourage farmers to take up pulses cultivation as a main agricultural enterprise. It will improve their

socio-economic status and also save them from distress selling in case of excess production.

MSP: Minimum support price (MSP) of pulses needs to be made lucrative to the extent that pulses

cultivation fetches equal returns to the farmers as in case of cereals . Their soil ameliorative properties

and greater environmental risks should also be considered while deciding teh MSP in pulses. This will

encourage them to undertake pulses cultivation.

Buffer stock: A buffer stock of important pulses needs to be created in the country to meet any contingent

condition such as in the phase of climatic adversities, outbreak of diseases and insect-pests or natural

calamities.

Holding limit: Strict imposition of holding limit of pulses with traders will discourage disproportionate

holding which will not let the prices of pulses escalate. The farmers will also be saved from distress selling

to traders.

Crop insurance scheme: All pulses need to brought under the umbrella of a wider crop insurance scheme

which will develop confidence among the farmers taking pulses cultivation as they will consider these as

assured crops.

Post-harvest processing, storage and market interventions: Pulses being more vulnerable to attack of

storage pests require post-harvest processing as well as specialized storage structures. It is estimated that

post-harvest losses in pulses occur to the tune of 10-15 per cent which if checked can add significantly to

our pulse basket. Therefore, it is targeted that post-harvest losses must be reduced by at least 5-7% in

next two years. The government needs to invest on this as a long term strategy so that pulse produce as

well as seeds can be stored safely for longer periods and post-harvest losses are minimized. The small

scale dal processing mills and indigenous processing of small farm produce in rural areas need to be

promoted.

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Conclusions

With rising demand of vegetarian food due to ever-increasing population and diversification of food habits,

demand of pulses is increasing at a fast pace. This will be further challenged by changing climate which may

manifest itself in the form of shifting rainfall pattern, untimely and erratic rains, extreme temperatures, etc.

which may also change the cultivation pattern of pulses. Post-harvest losses of food legumes still remain a

matter of great concern. Accordingly, pulse researchers have to remain prepared with a wide range of pulse

genotypes which may adapt themselves across changing climates. For developing such genotypes, wild

relatives which are rich reservoir of useful alien genes can play an important role. Further improvement in

pulses productivity is needed through conservation agriculture and diversification cropping system so as to

increase the productivity of the system and improve soil health. Climate change associated with temperature

rise and water scarcity adversely affecting the pulse productivity, particularly under rainfed pulse growing

regions, is one of the major challenges which need to be addressed on priority. There is a strong need to

formulate an strategic plan to achieve the goal focusing on broadening the genetic base of pulses for breaking

yield barriers, hybrid development in pigeonpea, transgenics in chickpea and pigeonpea, high yielding

varieties with tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses in various pulses, photo-thermo-insensitivity in

greengram and blackgram, bio-intensification of pulse-based cropping systems and resource conservation,

development of micro-irrigation techniques, mechanization and minimizing post harvest yield loss, climate risk

management and efficient extension models for dissemination of pulse-based technologies for farmers to

make the pulse cultivation in the country productive and remunerative. In addition market intelligence

mechanisms also need to be strengthened for the assessment of international demands of pulses.