Introduction

P

Demand-Supply Gap

Even though recent years have seen diversification in consumption patterns away from pulses to livestock, vegetables and other meat products, India is short of supply by 2 to 3 mt annually (Table 1, p 74). Pulses are not only a low cost source of protein for majority of Indian consumers; they are also a low cost substitute for vegetables in periods of high prices of vegetables. An improvement in pulses production technology can reduce the cost of production and hence prices, and create scope for further increase in demand for pulse crops by replacing some portion of the disproportionately high level of cereals in the consumption basket for a balanced diet. There is scope for decreasing imports and increasing exports of pulses and also increasing the use of pulses in value added products such as papad, snack food and in the confectionery industry, etc.

The demand-supply gap is also reflected in the higher prices in recent years – retail price of pigeonpea reached as high as Rs 120 per kg and other pulses remained above Rs 70 per kg for more than six months. The recent price hike is the result of the simultaneous occurrence of lower stock levels and less domestic production both in domestic and global markets, and to some extent speculative activity in the commodity futures markets. Keeping this in view, the National Food Security Mission (NFSM) has targeted an increase in pulses production by 2 mt by 2012. Since the last 10 years, the minimum support price (MSP) announced for all pulse crops has been below the market price. For example, the current MSP is below Rs 30 per kg, while the market price is hovering around Rs 100 for pigeonpea. The government has never treated the MSP as an effective tool for increasing pulses production; it is of the opinion that market forces will take care of acreage allocation and production of pulses. High volatility in prices for long periods, low productivity, and stagnation in production technology have acted as disincentives for pulses production (Reddy 2006).

Kharif Rabi Total

pea has been significantly higher (2.74%) during re-

cent years, due to wider adoption of long duration

varieties. While rapid growth in the production of

The yield of pulses has remained virtually stagnant

for the last 40 years (539 kg/ha in 1961 to 544 kg/ha

in 2001 to 617 kg/ha in 2009) (Table 1). India’s rank

in productivity is 24th in chickpea, 9th in pigeonpea,

Source: Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (2009).

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Constraints in Pulses Production

Even with the best efforts, pulses production and productivity has been stagnant. Due to the low productivity-low input nature, pulses are grown as residual/alternate crops on marginal lands after taking care of food/income needs from high productivityhigh input crops like paddy and wheat by most farmers. Also, they grow as rainfed crops with little or no modern yield enhancing inputs. The low priority accorded to pulse crops may be r elated to their relatively low status in the cropping system. As a crop of secondary importance, in many of these systems, pulse crops do not attract much of the farmer’s crop management a ttention. In addition to this, these crops are adversely affected by a number of biotic and abiotic stresses, which are responsible

Oil Palm and Maize (ISOPOM) after merging four centrally sponsored on-

going schemes on oilseeds, pulses, palm

oil and maize to make the programme

production, distribution and adoption of

improved technology. These integrated

research and extension efforts which

aimed at better utilisation of fallow areas

(Ali 2004), but benefits have been limited

to localised areas with irrigation facilities.

Source: Reddy (2006).

in food security, the NFSM was launched during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (2008-12) targeting important foodgrain crops – rice, wheat and pulses. The primary objective of the pulses component of the mission is to increase production of pulses by 2 mt through increase in area and productivity. The mission targets an area of 17 million hectares under pulses in 171 identified districts. Close to 4.05 million hectares is to be added to the area under cultivation by 2011-12 through the utilisation of rice fallows and inter-cropping with wider-spaced crops.

The mission aims at achieving the additional production of 2 mt by 2011-12 through increased adoption of improved and proven crop production and protection technologies such as hybrids and high yielding varieties, integrated management of nutrients, pests, weeds and improved tillage and other farm implements. The objective is to ensure adequate infrastructure for higher productivity by bridging yield gaps. NFSM is promoting agricultural technology and best practices that farmers have successfully adopted in other regions. The mission employs existing institutions to carry out its activities. It aims to strengthen the Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA), an autonomous body with a mandate to assign specific programmes to various implementing agencies at the district level. Pilot projects have been provided to promote innovations in programme design and implementation, like the development of a methodology of mass propagation of hybrid pigeonpea seeds through ICRISAT (through seed village concept), to contain the menace of neelgai.

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for a large extent of the instability and low yields. The following section deals with different technology constraints in pulses production, and strategies to overcome them (Table 4).

Abiotic Constraints

There has been a high degree of risk in pulses production. More than 87% of the area under pulses is presently rainfed. The mean rainfall of major pulse growing states such as Madhya Pradesh (MP), Uttar Pradesh (UP), Gujarat and Maharastra is about 1,000 mm and the coefficient of variation of the rainfall is 20-25%. Moisture stress is the oft-cited reason for crop failures. Terminal drought and heat stress results in forced maturity with low yields. Drought stress alone may reduce seed yields by 50% in the tropics. A quantum jump in productivity can be achieved by applying life saving irrigation especially in rabi pulses grown on residual moisture. Two genes – “efl-1” and “ppd” have been identified for early flowering and maturity to escape drought stress (ICCV-2 in south India). In collaboration with ICAR, ICRISAT has developed a unique short-duration (chickpea) variety ICPL-87. In a detailed impact study, Bantilan and Parthasarathy (1998) found that the variety/management package resulted in an average 93% yield increase over the system it replaced. This could have been tackled on two fronts – development of varieties tolerant to moisture stress and bringing more area under irrigation. Irrigated area under pulses has virtually remained stagnant at 13% of the total

Physiological Limitations

There is a general feeling that pulses (C-3 plants) suffer from inherently low yield potential and are a physiologically inefficient group of plants compared to cereals (C-4 plants) such as sorghum and maize. However Aggarwal et al (1997), reviewed the comparative advantages of C-3 and C-4 group of plants and argued that C-3 and C-4 plants seem to compete on fairly even terms in hot dry environments. The fact that C-3 plants usually do better in cool climates suggests that C-3 plants are better for rabi season. However, the disturbing future is that the harvest index (HI) in pulses is low compared to cereals. HI is defined as seed yield per unit of recoverable biomass. In pulses it is only 15-20% compared to 45-50% in case of cereals such as wheat and rice. Low HI results from excessive vegetative growth, but can be overcome by early partitioning of dry matter into seeds (Saxena and Johansen 1990) and evolving biotechnology and genomic tools to incorporate good features of C-4 plants into C-3 plants.

Pulses in general have a high rate of flower drop. In pigeonpea, over 80% of the flowers produced in a plant are shed; by decreasing flower drop, yield can be increased considerably. This can be done either by breeding lines which retain a large proportion of flowers producing pods or through physiological manipulations, such as spray of hormones which reduce flower drop. Physiological studies at ICRISAT, involving removal of flowers and young pods of pigeonpea, have shown that plants compensate for the loss of flowers and young pods by setting pods from later formed owners, which otherwise would have dropped. This compensatory mechanism provides substantial plasticity of adaptation to intermittent adverse conditions such as moisture stress or insect attack, which are common in warm rainfed areas of south India. Recent increase in yield levels in pigeonpea is due to release of long duration (annual) varieties, which maximise utilisation of assimilates in filling the available sink of a large number of flowers (Rego and Wani 2002).

Biofertilisers and Irrigation

Another important practice widely applied is that of “growing of short duration legumes” such as moongbean, cluster bean, cowpea and horse gram in widely spaced crops and incorporation of their biomass after harvesting (green manuring), which increases the yield of subsequent crops. Rotation of legumes with non-legumes is another practice to derive benefit from the nitrogen fixed by the rhizobium-legume interaction and to meet at least 50% of the nitrogen requirement of most of the cropping systems. About 40% of the pulses growing regions have low to medium population of native rhizobium. Seed inoculation with biofertiliser (rhizobium) (low cost input) can increase pulses productivity by 10-12%. Lack of quality culture in adequate quantity is one of the major constraints in popularisation of biofertilisers. Vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizae (VAM) offer promise for improving supply of phosphate and micronutrients like zinc for a variety of pulse crops. Phosphate solubilisers are yet another group of hydrotropic organisms, which may have applicability in rainfed pulses production systems, particularly in soils with poor phosphorus availability. Combined use of culture, like dual inoculation of rhizobium and VAM resulted in higher seed yield of crops than with rhizobium alone.

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Even though good results have been obtained in research stations, the adaptability of integrated nutrient management (INM) technologies by farmers is dismal at the farm level. More emphasis should be given to evolve and identify suitable biofertiliser strains for major pulse based cropping systems for different agro-climatic conditions through integrated approaches of the agronomist, biotechnologist and microbiologist. The most effective way is to deliver appropriate rhizobia to seedlings where and when it is required; it is also possible to popularise superior nodulating varieties of pulse crops (Malhothra 2002). An experimental result shows that deficiency of micronutrients, especially sulphur and zinc is widespread among pulse growing regions. A very encouraging response to the application of sulphur and zinc has been found with a cost benefit ratio of 10-21%.

Irrigation is an important input in any cropping system. Pulses are generally cultivated as rainfed crops due to less irrigation response than competing crops like cereals. However, experimental results at IIPR show that one irrigation at a critical stage could substantially improve productivity. At the ICRISAT centre, grain yield increased in response to irrigation by nearly 50% in sole pigeonpea and more than doubled in intercropped pigeonpea with two irrigations given at the vegetative and flowering stages after the harvest of the cereal crop in years of scarce rainfall (Sharma and Jodha 1982). However, in northern parts of India where temperatures and evaporation are low with good amount of winter rainfall, responses to irrigation have not been very large. In view of good response for supplemental irrigation to pulse crops, government should encourage policies to provide supplemental irrigation. Plants of certain pulses (pigeonpea) still have wild traits like indeterminate growth habits, which cause intra-plant competition for photosynthesis resulting in poor partitioning to yield components, which reduce grain yield of the crop. These crops need to be fully domesticated. Domestication of these pulses through restructuring of plant is a difficult task and inputs from physiologists, biochemists, breeders and geneticists are necessary in the development of desirable plant types.

Exploitation of Heterosis Breeding in Pulses

The quantum of yield advances made through breeding in cereals such as maize, sorghum, millets, etc, is much higher than that of pulses. This difference in case of pulses arises primarily due to lack of commercial exploitation of hybrid vigor due to lack of mass pollen transfer mechanism and non-availability of effective male-sterility system. With the exception of pigeonpea (ICPH-8) the hybrid vigor for yield has not been exploited in all other pulse crops. The adoption of these hybrids, however, is limited due to

Table 6: Zonal Weigted Mean Seed Yield of Hybrid ICPH-8 and Controls UPAS-120 and Manak (1981-89)

seed production limitations posed by genetic nature of male sterility (Saxena et al 2000) even though ICPH-8 was found to be more promising. It was released for cultivation in the central zone of India in 1981. Evaluation from 100 trials showed ICPH-8 to be superior to controls, UPAS-120 and Manak by 30.5% and 34.2% respectively, in productivity (Table 6, p 77).

There is still further scope for enhancing genetic improvement in pulse crops through biotechnology. Mutation breeding has contributed about 10% of the total improved varieties of pulses and is supplementing the conventional breeding programme. The mutant variety, Pant Moong-2, with resistance to YMV disease is very popular in north India (Pawar and Panday 2001). There is good scope for development of ideal plant type especially chickpea and pigeonpea, in line with rice developed by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in collaboration with other research organisations with the leadership of ICAR. Specific efforts in this direction are already in place by both national and international organisations with respect to chickpea.

Post-Harvest Technology

Post-harvest losses account for 9.5% of total pulses production. Among post-harvest operations, storage is responsible for the maximum loss (7.5%). Processing, threshing and transport cause 1%, 0.5% and 0.5% losses, respectively. Among storage losses, pulses are also most susceptible to damage due to insects (5%) compared to wheat (2.5%), paddy (2%) and maize (3.5%) (Deshpande and Singh 2001). Appropriate storage structures (metal storage which in turn is partly responsible for their stagnation. The structure of pulses production is also characterised by the dominance of two crops, viz, chickpea and pigeonpea, which together account for more than one-half of total pulse area in India. Hence if these two crops suffer from adverse climatic conditions, it significantly r educes the production of pulses. The decline of chickpea in p articular and pigeonpea and other crops in major pulse growing states like UP, Punjab, Haryana and Bihar clearly support this possibility.

Indo-Gangetic Plains and Rice Fallows

Pulses have been introduced in the Indo-Gangetic plains with the development of short duration varieties of pigeonpea (150-170 days) such as UPAS-120, Manak, AL-15, AL-201, etc. These enable their introduction in the irrigated areas of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and western UP under pigeonpea-wheat based cropping system. Similarly, short duration (60-70 days) varieties of moongbean having synchronised maturity and resistance to YMV (PDM-11, PDM-54) offer good scope for their introduction as catch crop in rice-wheat system.

A study by Reddy (2006) compared cost-benefits from pulse based cropping systems with rice-wheat cropping systems in UP on farmers’ fields under irrigated conditions, and the results are presented in Table 7. The figures clearly depict that pulse based cropping systems were less input intensive, required less labour, water, pesticides and fertilisers. But both gross returns and net returns per hectare were higher (given the higher prices of pulse crops) for pulse based cropping systems compared to rice-wheat systems. Benefit-cost ratio is also higher for pulse based cropping

bins) need to be popularised. One can also

Table 7: Economics of Pulse-Based Cropping Systems vs Rice-Wheat Cropping Systems under Irrigated Conditions

increase the processing efficiency in dal Crop Rotation Gross Return Cost Net Return B/C ratio Fertiliser Pesticide Labour Irrigation GR/Unit (Rs/ha) (Rs/ha) (Rs/ha) (Rs/ha) (Rs/ha) (Man days) Charges (Rs/ha) Water

Moong-lentil 42,540 13,685 28,855 3.2 160 500 122 700 60.8

Maize-lentil 37,000 9,985 27,015 3.7 320 500 72 700 52.9

Urad-wheat 45,000 25,310 19,690 1.8 1,688 0 182 5,600 8

Pigeonpea+sorghum 25,820 6,548 19,272 3.9 40 225 74 700 36.9

Pigeonpea-wheat-moong 51,500 32,730 18,770 1.6 1,688 300 268 6,500 7.9

Socio-economic Constraints

Pulses production in India is characterised by a very high degree of diversity as indicated both by the number of crops, and their spatial distribution into varied agro-climatic conditions. Most of these crops are region-specific in the sense that a single state or a cluster of few states accounts for the bulk of the area and production of a specific pulse crop. Pulses such as pea, lentil, khesari and even chickpea indicate their regional distribution pattern. This diversity has several implications. In the first place it places serious limits to a single national policy for the promotion of pulses production in the country, and for the promotion of regional crop specific strategies to pulses development programmes. However, in view of the meagre resources available to pulses development as a group, this diversified approach may mean spreading the resources too thinly and in turn making the effort inconsequential. This dilemma may partly explain the absence of any major thrust on research on pulses, systems. Even rice-pulse crop sequence is better than the ricewheat cropping system. Overall, pulse based cropping systems are more suitable for resource poor farmers and water scarce regions. Hence policy options have to be evolved to incorporate at least one pulse crop in cropping systems to enhance returns from irrigated farming systems. However, these findings are only applicable in irrigated conditions.

It should be noted that the scope for introduction of pulse crops in rice-fallows (mostly un-irrigated) needs to be exploited with supplemental irrigation, considering the higher profitability and scope for pulse crops as rabi crop in the cropping systems. Table 8 (p 79) depicts the extent of rice-fallows, which can be put under pulse crops in the rabi season. There is vast area of fallow land in MP (78% of kharif rice area, which accounts for 4.4 million ha), Bihar (2.2million ha) and in West Bengal (1.7 million ha), which are most suitable for pulses cultivation.

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Peas: There are remote possibilities of expansion of area under this crop. Like chickpea, this crop also faces competition with wheat in irrigated areas. However, there is still some scope for area expansion under this crop in UP, MP and Bihar at the tail end areas of canals where enough water is not available for growing wheat crop.

Rajmash and Broadbeans: These crops possess a very high yield potential with the use of high levels of inputs like fertiliser and irrigation. Yield levels up to 2.5 tonnes per hectare can easily be obtained in these crops. The potential areas are eastern UP, Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa, MP, Maharashtra and Gujarat. It may be possible to cover about 0.1 million hectares area in four to five years time. However, these crops have a limited preference from consumers.

Farmers’ Production Strategies and Gaps in Technology

Some results of the farmers’ level of technology are given in this section (Reddy 2006). Farmers have been applying sub-optimal doses of fertilisers, pesticides and number of irrigations for pulses after meeting the requirements of wheat, paddy and vegetable crops. For pigeonpea and chickpea, most farmers applied 40kg/ha urea. To address the problem of wilt and pod borer, farmers used pesticides. Only occasionally some farmers applied farm yard manure at the rate of 2t/ha. For kharif pulses generally there is no application of irrigation. For rabi/spring pulses grown only in irrigated conditions, the number of irrigations depends on the availability and cost of irrigation. Generally the numbers of irrigations given at critical stages have been thus: for lentil three times, for chickpea two times, for fieldpea two times, for urd/moong (spring) three to four times have been given at critical stages. Economic returns far exceed the cost of irrigation and fertilisers, while the response for pesticide on pod borer and wilt is not certain.

The improved variety of pigeonpea (early) (UPAS-120) has recorded a yield increase of 44.4% over local varieties, chickpea variety (BG-256) recorded a yield increase of 43.6% over local varieties, and field pea (HFP-4) recorded the highest yield increase, i e, 54.5%. Improved varieties of lentil, moongbean and urdbean

References

Aggarwal, P K, M J Kropff, K G Cassman and H F M ten Berge (1997): “Simulating Genotypic Strategies for Increasing Rice Yield Potential” in Irrigated Tropical Environments”, Field Crops Research, 51: 5-17.

Ali, M (2004): “Pulses Research and Development in India: An Overview”, Agri Watch, Vol 3, (10), pp 79-83.

Bantilan, M C S and D Parthasarathy (1998): “Efficiency and Sustainability Gains from Adoption of Short Duration Pigeonpea”, Impact Series No 2, ICRISATI, Patancheru, India.

Deshpande, S D and G Singh (2001): “Long Term Storage Structures in Pulses”, National Symposium on Pulses for Sustainable Agriculture and N utritional Security, Indian Institute of Pulses R esearch, New Delhi, 17-19 April.

GoI (2009): “Data Base on Indian Agriculture, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation”, http:// dacnet.nic.in.

FAOSTAT (2009): “Online Interactive Database on A griculture”, FAOSTAT. www.fao.org

ICRISAT (2009): “The Rice Fallow Environment”, www.icrisat.org/gt-aes/text/RicFawE.htm.

Joshi, P K (2009): “Prices and Market Intervention in Pulses”, paper presented in Brainstorming workshop on Issues and Strategies for Increasing Productivity and Production of Pulses in India,

showed yield increases of around 30-35%. Overall with the adoption of improved varieties, gross returns increased more than the increase in costs, thereby increasing the cost-benefit ratio. In pigeonpea (late), it was found that 51.1% of the farmers used improved seeds, 42.2% used fertilisers, 25.4% used insect pest control, and 17.7% used seed inoculation with fungicides and 22.2% followed seed treatment with rhizobium culture. Non-availability of improved varieties and rhizobium culture are major reasons for their non-adoption.

Experience of on-farm research at ICRISAT in the Thadnapally district Sangareddy, in Andhra Pradesh shows that with adequate institutional support, easy supply of inputs and necessary credit facilities ensured by different government agencies, the improved technology can be effectively transferred with substantial gains in productivity of rainfed crops. However, it requires new farmer participatory approaches to increase the adoption under very complex situations. Another approach, which is most suitable under complex rainfed areas, is the farmer participatory research (FPR) developed to involve farmers more closely in on-farm research. Farmer-participatory testing will help refine the technologies, pinpoint and eliminate adoption constraints.

Conclusions

In short, to increase area and production of pulse crops we need crop specific and region specific approaches, which should be adopted in the overall framework of systems approach. The major thrust areas to be addressed are as follows (i) Replacement of cereal crops in the prevailing rice-wheat cropping systems with high yield varieties of pulses. (ii) Inclusion of short duration varieties of pulses as catch crop. (iii) Development of multiple disease and pest resistant varieties. (iv) Reducing storage loses and improving market information and infrastructure. (v) Linking MSP to market prices can bridge the gap between demand and supply. (vi) Developing high nitrogen fixing varieties, which will play a crucial role in sustainable agriculture, and (vii) Coordination of research, extension and farmers to encourage farmer’s participatory research.

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– (2008): “Supply Side Constraints in Production of Pulses in India: A Case Study of Lentils”, Agricultural Economics Research Review, Vol 21, Conference issue, pp 281-83.

Rego, T J and S P Wani (2002): “Environment-Friendly Management Options for Sustaining Productivity in the Asian Semi-Arid Tropics”, SANREM CRSP South Asia 2001 Annual Conference, Manila, Philippines, 28-30 May, http://www.aae.wisc.edu/sanrem-sea/Conference/Papers/Paper-Rego.doc

Saxena, K B, D P Srivastava and S B S Tikka (2000): “Breaking Yield Barriers in Pigeonpea through Hybrid Breeding” in M Ali, A N Asthana, Y S Rathore, S N Gurha, S K Chaturvedi and S Gupta (ed.), A dvances in Management of Biotic and Abiotic Stresses in Pulse Crops, Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Kanpur, pp 211-19.

Saxena, N P and C Johansen (1990): “Realised Yield Potential in Chickpea and Physiological Considerations for Further Genetic Improvement” in S K Sinha, P V Sane, S C Bhargava and P K Aggarwal (ed.), Proceedings of the International Congress of Plant Physiology, Vol 1, Indian Society for Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, pp 279-88.

Sharma, D and N S Jodha (1982): “Pulses Production in Semi-arid Regions of India: Constraints and Opportunities”, Economic & Political Weekly, Issue No 52, Vol No XVII.

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