The Hindu Business Line : Pulses output hit as cultivation shifts to marginal areas — Output unlikely to exceed 13 mt this year

According to the Agriculture Ministry, the progressive area sown under kharif pulses so far this year, at 8.32 million hectares, is way below the 12.71 million hectares planted last year. At this rate, this year's output — mainly arhar (pigeon pea), mung (green gram) and urad (black gram) — would be just around 4 mt, compared to last year's record 6.33 mt.

Even if production recovers in the rabi season — the residual moisture due to late monsoon rains could well spur acreage under chana (chickpea) — it is unlikely that the overall pulses crop will exceed 13 mt during 2004-05.

While year-to-year fluctuations are not unusual for any crop, what makes the situation serious in pulses, however, is the stagnation in production on a long-term basis. Between 1955-56 and 2003-04, total output has risen marginally from 11.04 m.t. to 15.23 m.t., even as the country's combined foodgrains production has shot up from a mere 66.85 mt to 212.05 mt.

Average per hectare yields for pulses, too, have gone up sparingly from 476 kg to around 600 kg during this period, whereas it has almost trebled from 650 kg to over 1,700 kg for all foodgrains.

So, what really is the problem? It is not that pulses have completely escaped the attention of agricultural scientists, as is widely perceived. While it is true that the average per hectare productivity has increased only marginally, what this does not convey though is the significant rise that has taken place in `per day yields'.

Take arhar. Traditionally, farmers used to cultivate varieties maturing in 300-330 days, with yield potential of 2-2.5 tonnes per hectare. But now there are varieties such as Paras, Manak, UPAS-120 and Pragati that mature in 120-150 days while giving same yields. India also has the distinction of breeding the world's first arhar hybrids such as ICPH-8 and PPH-4 that yield 15-30 per cent more than comparable check varieties and mature in just 140-145 days.

Similarly, today there are chana varieties such as Kranthi and Swetha that mature in 85-100 days, against the conventional 150-180 day crop. In mungbean, scientists have developed varieties that mature in just 60 days. Thus, even if yields may not have risen much on an `annual average' basis, they have gone up on a `per day' basis, which the production statistics fail to capture.

Besides breeding short-duration varieties, the other big research accomplishment in pulses has been in breaking geographical barriers for cultivation. In the old days, chana was grown only in the North during October-April. Now, it has spread to the South as well.

The advent of Swetha and Kranthi has led to chana area in Andhra Pradesh alone to increase from 60,000 hectares to nearly 3 lakh hectares in the last 10 years, with production also going up from 28,000 tonnes to 3.75 lakh tonnes. Arhar was similarly confined to just Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh, whereas today over three lakh hectares in Northwest India are under the crop.

The real reason for stagnation in pulses production lies not in the lack of research, but in the fact that their cultivation has over the years been pushed to marginal areas. There was a time when pulses were grown widely in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. But with the development of irrigation facilities, these areas have shifted from chana to wheat. Indeed, whenever and wherever farmers have obtained access to irrigation, they have invariably shifted from pulses to wheat or rice.

As a result, pulses cultivation is now confined largely to rainfed lands prone to moisture stress. If output levels have been maintained at 12-15 mt, despite this `orphan treatment' meted out to pulses, it is actually something worth highlighting!

By this logic, the only way to break the present impasse is to stop viewing pulses as an `orphan crop' and extending their cultivation to irrigated areas. There is a particularly strong case for re-introducing pulses in Punjab and Haryana, where the continuous recourse to paddy-wheat rotation has led to severe `nutrient mining' and environmental degradation.

25 pc nutrient saving assured

FARMERS in India have traditionally grown pulses not just for their grains, but also as perennial 300-day crops yielding nitrogenous fodder through the year for admixture with bhusa (straw).

Pulses, like other legumes, contain root nodules that can fix atmospheric nitrogen and save as much as 30 kg of nitrogen per hectare for the succeeding crop.

Considering that wheat alone requires 120 kg per hectare of nitrogen, this straightaway delivers a nutrient saving of 25 per cent. While replacement of rice-wheat with arhar-wheat is a good option, scientists believe that there is also scope for farmers in Punjab to plant say, a 60-day mung in between rice and wheat.

This could be done after harvesting wheat in end-March or early-April. The transplanting of paddy could then be in June, rather than in May as is currently being done. If with two irrigations, they can get one tonne of mung per hectare and save 30 kg of nitrogen for the paddy crop, it would make sound economics in a scenario where fertiliser subsidies are phased out, the scientists say.