Various occupy an important
place in Indian agriculture. In India, there are grown over an area of 23.8
million hectares with a total production of 18.6 million tonnes. The average
yield of pulses in India is about 735 kg/hectare. The country need to produce
405 million tonnes of additional pulses for meeting the domestic requirement
and this can be possible only if we develop high yielding, short duration,
drought and insect pest resistance varieties of pulses. In the rainy season,
pulses like green gram, black gram, pigeon pea and cow pea are the most
important and leading pulse crops of India.
Chick pea, lentil, lathyrus,
field pea and kidney bean are the important pulse crops grown during winter
season. However, green gram, black gram and cowpea are grown in both spring and
rainy season. Pulses are generally grown in irrigated as well as rain fed area
and belong to leguminaceae family. (Main growing areas of pulses in India are
Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Rajasthan.
Madhya Pradesh is the leading state in India in pulses, in1erms of cultivated
area and productivity.
Factors
Responsible for Low Yield of Pulses
Delayed sowings/plantings
Low seed rate resulting in poor
crop stands
Poor weed management during making
quick money in India
Inefficient irrigation and rain
water management
Large scale monoculture and
non-inclusion of pulses in cropping systems
Lack of consideration of
previous cropping in the same field
Inadequate plant protection.
Non-availability of seeds of
HYVs at affordable price and at the appropriate time
Lack of more efficient N using
genotypes
Imbalanced use of fertilizers
Poor management for secondary
and micronutrient, mainly 5, Zn, MN, Fe and B.
India has already enjoyed five
decades of post green revolution period. The projected requirement of pulses by
the year 2030 is estimated at about 32 million tonnes. Pulses play a pivotal
role in enhancing livelihood security, nutritional security, food security,
soil health, farm profit and environmental sustainability. Thus pulses are
premier crops cultivated in Indian subcontinent.
Indian population is
predominantly vegetarian. Pulses and its products are a rich source of
essential nutrients like protein, minerals and vitamins. Pulses can easily meet
the protein requirement of a vegetarian diet. As diet of Indians is deficient
in respect of quality and quantity of protein, mixing of pulses grains with
other cereals enhances the nutritive value of the food. Pulses are also a cost
effective alternate to ameliorate energy protein/ nutrient elements deficiency
in the country: Several serious diseases in human beings can be prevented by
regular intake of pulses.
India has only three per cent
of the world's land resources and five per cent of water resources. Yet, Indian
agriculture system supports 18 per cent of the world population. Since
resources, viz. land, water and energy are limited, scarce, costly and having
competing demand for urbanization industrialization and meeting farming needs.
Further: degrading of soil health is posing major concerns for' agricultural
sustainability. Low soil organic matter and imbalanced use of fertilizers are
affecting pulse crops productivity.
A deficient monsoon followed by
a further dry spell for the past few years has affected pulses production. The
production of pulses in India has remained insufficient making us dependent on
imports. The demand for these food commodities is expected to increase in
future substantially. India is the world's largest producer, importer and
consumer of pulses our annual import bill for pulses is Rs 100,000 million.
Thus, there is a great need for
increasing production of pulses as par capita availability of pulses is only 37
g/day as against 54 g/day required to fulfil the protein requirement under
changing climate scenario, more emphasis shall be given on achieving the target
of 24 million tonnes of pulses production by 2020 so as to make the country self-sufficient
and reduce the burden of import bill substantially Further, pulse seed
production hubs are being developed in various regions to ensure availability
of quality seeds of pulses to farmers.
The per capita availability of
pulses has progressively declined from 65 g/ day in 1961 to merely 39.4 g in
2011, whereas, availability of cereals has gone up from 399.7 to 423.5g.
Under National Food Security
Mission pulses cultivation has been started in Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal
Pradesh, Uttrakhand and all the North East states. Salient points of National
Food Security Mission are given below.
Author bio: 247BroadStreet
Major Playing Role of agriculture in Indian economy.
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