Pulses in India: Comprehensive Analysis of Production, Challenges, and Strategic Vision for 2030

Despite of immense growth of Indian agriculture, food and nutritional security is still a challenge due to biasedness towards wheat and rice. As production of pulses in the recent decade has not increased in pace with the increase in population. Pulses are a major source of protein in Indian diet and also environment friendly. Therefore, the increase in pulse production will act as an accelerator for nutritional security. This study analyses the nutritional value of pulses, status of pulses economy in India comprising of import, export and consumption status as well as a strategic vision for 2030 towards promotion of pulses in the country. Pulses form one of the most important group of crops in India, which is also responsible for yielding large financial gains by amounting to a large part of the exports. Of all categories of people, pulses form an integral part of the Indian diet, providing much-needed protein to the carbohydrate-rich diet. For farmers, pulses are an important crop because they can both sell them and consume them, which helps farmers maintain household food security and creates economic stability. Being leguminous crops, they help in restoring soil fertility by utilising nitrogen from the air (nitrogen fixation). Therefore, pulses are mostly grown in rotation with other crops. They need less moisture and survive even in dry conditions. India is the largest producer as well as consumer of pulses in the world. The top pulse-producing states in India are Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and Karnataka, collectively contribute significantly to the country’s pulse output, yet current production fails to meet domestic demand, leading to imports. The common pulses across globe are black gram, green gram, horse gram, peas, cow peas, pigeon peas, lentils and chick peas. A long-term vision is required for pulses in India because of various aspects like lower yield compared to global average, wide gap between demand and supply, rapid population growth and nutritional as well as environmental value. In this article the challenges and constraints in achieving projected demand of pulses and government policy support for achieving this projected demand have been discussed, addressing the complex dynamics of pulses economy in India.