Legumes occupy an important place in Indian agriculture. In India, pulses are grown in an area of 23.8 million hectares with a total production of 18.6 million tons. The average vegetable yield in India is about 735 kg / hectare. The country needs to produce an additional 405 million tons of pulses to meet national needs and this will only be possible if we develop high-yielding, short-lived varieties of pulses that are resistant to drought and insect pests. In the rainy season, legumes like green chickpea, black chickpea, pigeon pea and pea are the most important and main legume crops in India. Chickpeas, lentils, lathyrus, peas, and beans are the important legume crops grown during the winter season. However, green chickpea, black chickpea, and cowpea are grown both in spring and in the rainy season. Legumes are generally grown in irrigated and rainfed areas and belong to the legume family. (The main pulses growing areas in India are Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Rajasthan. Madhya Pradesh is India’s leading pulses state in terms of acreage and productivity.
Factors responsible for the low yield of legumes
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Delayed plantings / plantings
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Low seed rate resulting in poor crops
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Poor weed management during crop growth
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Ineffective irrigation and rainwater management
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Large-scale monoculture and no inclusion of legumes in cropping systems
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Lack of consideration of previous crops in the same field
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Inadequate plant protection.
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Non-availability of VAR seeds at an affordable price and at the right time
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Lack of N more efficient using genotypes
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Unbalanced use of fertilizers
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Poor handling of secondary and micronutrients, mainly 5, Zn, Mn, Fe and B.
India has already enjoyed five decades of post-green revolution. However, stable or declining pulses production created several problems such as protein malnutrition and insecurity of quality food and higher cost of pulses. The demand for pulses is much greater than their availability, leading to an increase in the prices of pulses, which is inaccessible to consumers, particularly the population living in rural, mountainous and tribal areas. The projected legume requirement for 2030 is estimated at around 32 million tons. Pulses play a critical role in improving livelihood security, nutrition security, food security, soil health, agricultural profits, and environmental sustainability. Therefore, legumes are top-tier crops grown in the Indian subcontinent.
The Indian population is predominantly vegetarian. Legumes and their products are a rich source of essential nutrients such as proteins, minerals and vitamins. Legumes can easily meet the protein requirement of a vegetarian diet. As the diet of the Indians is deficient in quality and quantity of protein, the mixture of legume grains with other cereals increases the nutritional value of the food. Legumes are also a cost-effective alternative to improve protein and energy nutrient deficiencies in the country: several serious diseases in humans can be prevented by regular intake of legumes.
India has only three percent of the world’s land resources and five percent of the water resources. Yet India’s agricultural system supports 18 percent of the world’s population. Since the resources, viz. land, water, and energy are limited, scarce, expensive, and in competitive demand for urbanization, industrialization, and meeting agricultural needs. Furthermore: the degradation of soil health raises important concerns for ‘agricultural sustainability’. Low soil organic matter and unbalanced use of fertilizers are affecting the productivity of legume crops. A poor monsoon followed by a new spell of drought in recent years has affected the production of pulses. Legume production in India is still insufficient, making us dependent on imports. The demand for these food products is expected to increase substantially in the future. India is the largest producer, importer and consumer of pulses in the world. Our annual vegetable import bill is Rs 100,000 million. Therefore, there is a great need to increase the production of legumes, since the per capita availability of legumes is only 37 g / day compared to the 54 g / day necessary to meet the protein requirement in a changing climate scenario. , more emphasis will be placed on achieving the goal. production of 24 million tons of pulses by 2020 to make the country self-sufficient and substantially reduce the burden of the import bill.In addition, pulses production centers are being developed in several regions to ensure the availability of pulses seeds from quality for farmers.
The per capita availability of pulses has progressively decreased from 65 g / day in 1961 to just 39.4 g in 2011, while the availability of cereals has increased from 399.7 to 423.5 g. For a country facing persistent protein inflation and a preference for a vegetarian diet, legumes are the most economical source of plant protein, higher consumption of legumes will help address the scourge of widespread malnutrition caused by protein deficiency among large sections of the Indian population.
National Food Safety Mission (NFSM) and legumes
The government has launched the National Food Security Mission (NFSM) for food and nutritional security and for the promotion of the cultivation of legumes and other foods that have been cereals. Recently, more states covered by the National Food Safety Mission. Within the framework of the National Food Security Mission, the cultivation of pulses was started in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttrakhand and all the northeastern states. The highlights of the National Food Safety Mission are listed below.
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Seven crops of rice, wheat, pulses, jute, sugar cane, cotton, coarse grains covered by the NFSM.
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Fifty percent of NFSM has been dedicated to the development of pulses.
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Legume cultivation under NFSM has been started in J&K, HP, UK and all the Northeast states).
Legumes have the ability to protect the soil from wind and water erosion in the arid and semi-arid tropics. The roots of the legume plant have Rhizobium nodules that function for nitrogen fixation in the soil. For better nitrogen fixation in suitable species, Rhizobium A should be applied for different legume crops. Legumes are a rich source of protein and can be easily grown under the rice and wheat cultivation system in North West India. Legumes improve soil fertility by fixing atmospheric nitrogen and therefore farmers must adopt this technology in the region.
Balanced fertilization
Balanced fertilizer use at the macro level in India is generally equated with a nutrient intake ration of 4: 2: 1 (N: P205: K20 ‘)
The use of biofertilizers such as Rhizobium, Azospirillum, Phosphate salubilizing bacteria (PSB) and Trichoderma also resulted in a significant increase in all growth and yield parameters in legume crops. Apart from this, it has a potential role in saving chemical fertilizers in the cultivation of legumes. Biofertilizers such as PSB and mycorrhizal fungi significantly increase the yield and the yield attributes characters and P content in the shoot in the crop of legumes. Similarly, growth attributes and nutrient uptake in legume crops also increased due to the application of Rhizobium, PSB Azotobacter and Azospirillum compared to the control.
Processing, packaging and storage
Go overcome the pulse crisis in the future, emphasis! It can occur in agricultural processing and added value of legumes and storage facilities that are needed, as legume grains are easily damaged by insects and pests. Also, the percentage of moisture in the legume grains should be reduced or less after sun drying and waterproof bags such as thick polyethylene bags should be used for packaging and storage. These “bags should be heat sealed. In case of higher seed humidity, jute bags are recommended. Legume seeds are hygroscopic in nature, they absorb moisture from the atmosphere until the equilibrium between vapor pressure is reached. Therefore, efforts should be made to keep the relative humidity in seed storage as low as possible and avoid any possibility of the seed absorbing moisture from the atmosphere.
Aeration during seed storage is important, particularly when moisture content is low. Emphasis can also be placed on legume processing techniques, the center of utilization and the development of local markets for the production of legumes. So that a better harvest of pulses can improve the economy and the standard of living of small and marginal farmers.
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