Pulses, especially lentils, provide advantages in health, nutrition and environment, according to researchers. Lentils are a nutrient-dense food with many health benefits such as high levels of protein, iron, magnesium and zinc, while being low in fat and no cholesterol.

Additionally, they are high in folate, dietary fibre and antioxidants, representatives of Canadian and the US pea and lentil promotion organisations told delegates at the International Pulses Industry and Trade Confederation convention here on Monday.

Eco-friendly

Interestingly, lentils are environment-friendly compared to other foods in energy and water usage. Among a wide range of food products, energy intensity of pulses is the lowest. At the same time, in terms of water footprint too, pulses rank the lowest.

While 43 gallons of water are required to produce one pound of pulses, water usage is higher in case of soybean (216 gallons) and peanuts (368 gallons) progressively rising to 1,857 gallons to produce one pound of beef.

The world is now discovering the benefits of growing and consuming pulses, something that agrarian economies such as India have been doing for several decades. Pulses are a dry-land crop and, no wonder, they use much less water than many other crops. By their very nature, many legumes, especially pulses, use less water and help fix nitrogen in soil.

Crop rotation

Using legumes for crop rotation to enhance soil health and reduce nitrogen application is a well accepted and widely adopted agronomic practice. As for energy footprint, the West uses too much of synthetic fertilisers that are produced out of fossil energy (crude), and these products are of recent origin.

Now, producing countries such as the US and Canada that are large suppliers of various pulses (pea and lentil) to many importing countries such as India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh and so on are seeking to promote pulses export using the health, nutrition and environment platform.

The marketing initiative on health and environment grounds may be successful in some markets, but not in all, some of the participants at the convention told this correspondent.

Outlook for 2011

Weather aberrations can mar the prospects for production of pulses in major producing regions, experts assert. Growing regions in the US and Canada are reeling under floods cause by melting snow. Obviously, planting is going to be delayed and so will the harvest. There are concerns of dry conditions in Australia.

Will the world have enough pulses in the coming months? This is the big question everyone is asking. India may of course be the wild card. If expanded acreages of 2010 (26 million hectares) are repeated in 2011, and the southwest monsoon turns friendly, the world will be relieved of huge price pressure.

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