Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

What Pulses Could Contribute to an Environmentally Sustainable Global Food Supply

Legumes, the source of pulses,  have a variety of advantages over most of the other crops. Their well-known ability to utilise atmospheric nitrogen enables the farmers to save on fertilizers and allows the use of crop residues to enhance the soil fertility and porosity in an environmentally sustainable way.

Moreover, there are a large number of legume species which could be grown under a wide variety of geographical and climatic conditions, like the xerophytic Carob at one extreme, and to the Andean Lupines believed to have been in use for millennia at the other. Archaeological evidence indicates that the pulses have been included in the food cultures of Sumerians, ancient Egyptians, Indus valley civilisation, etc. 

Household food security  is ascertained  with reference to the food culture to which the people involved conform. This may appear hard to accept at its face value, but, a foreign traveller in distant rural areas could easily find well-stocked small holdings, where people are friendly and hospitable while the visitor has to go hungry owing to the differences in their food cultures.  Local food culture identifies what food items are best raised in a given location by a group of people who subscribe to a certain set of shared beliefs.

When  the local food culture includes  pulses, it implies the crop can be successfully raised and consumed by those living there. This is the first pathway by which it contributes to household food security. Like other components of a culture, the food culture of an area may diffuse over an extensive area through education in its real sense, human migration and trade, travelling, etc.

As a result, new types of pulses like Mung beans and split red lentils have now become more or less household food items in Europe and elsewhere. Expansion of the health food industry and its vigorous publicity campaigns as well as the spreading of various sects of vegetarianism have further increased the importance of pulses as a food source. Their importance seems to be highest in South Asia including Nepal, while they are a significant food source in Mediterranean, Portugal, Mexico and South America.

As far as I know, there is still a significant shortfall between the supply and the demand for pulses, which if met in an environmentally sustainable manner,  could benefit everybody in several ways. At the same time,  a reasonable substitution of animal food by pulses  throughout the world would have the same spin-offs as the former. Taking them up collectively, their benefits include:

1. Environmentally beneficial, sustainable way of food production that may become a part of a farming package to attract youth to agricultural pursuits.
2. Their partial substitution of animal food would reduce the strain on the ecosystem services the current meat production imposes on them.
3. Legumes could reduce the need for nitrogen fertilisers and provide excellent mulch, or also serve as a crop/shade plant that would improve the local climate by regulating the ground-space heat exchange in the area, which is crucial to the maintenance of its salubriousness.

There are several verities of edible vetches, and some of them have been successfully used as an effective ground cover in rubber plantations as well as a source of food. Since the banana plantations display more or less the same soil and climatic conditions, the same mixed cropping may be introduced to improve the soil and provide an additional source of food.

Legumes could play an important role not only in mitigating the adverse effects of environmental degradation like local/regional/global warming, but also in increasing the available ecosystems services. If carefully selected, they  may serve as an adjunct to the local food supply or become a secondary source of income.

For instance, the Tamarind thrives under the arid environs of South Asia and is a plant endemic to the area. During the day, it provides the vital green cover that lowers the solar heat uptake by the barren soil, which raises the local temperature. At night, its leaves are folded, allowing a free air-flow, which enables the heat to escape into the air creating a gentle breeze. The pulp of its ripe pods is used as a condiment.

At the same time, no species that are not endemic should be introduced merely for economic reasons. There are great gaps in our understanding of how a new species may interact with the local species, and some  of them may turn out to be catastrophic. It is always prudent to keep in mind that both the flora and fauna of an area depend on each other for their continued existence in some way, and we are still ignorant of the complete picture. Introduction of the legume Prosopis spp. In India and its consequences for the continued existence of the Indian wild ass is

An example of what could happen when a new species is introduced into an area without due consideration.

However, I think planting of suitable variants of Carob on the Mediterranean basin, and extending it beyond it into Portugal could mitigate the excessive summer heat there while yielding  a useful article of commerce. I advocate the use of  existing legume species, perhaps improved by traditional breeding, but certainly not those whose genes have been modified.

Fortunately, regardless of the kind of use into which legumes are put, most of them are not difficult to cultivate, an adequate supply of water being the most important, especially for the seedlings. Moreover, as a dry and non-perishable item, pulses do not require sophisticated storage facilities or means of transport. At least in some parts of the world, some types of pulses, eg. Mung bean, black-eyed beans,  and red split pulse, have a huge demand.

Secure land tenure, access to sound viable seed at a reasonable price, appropriate advice and training, an adequate supply of water, and financial resources seem to be the most significant problems the legume farmers encounter. Further, I think they are often compelled to sell their produce at unreasonably low prices to the middlemen who make exorbitant profits at the expense of the producer and the end-user.

I envisage a two-pronged approach to promote the cultivation and consumption of  pulses, which may be extended to include the other useful legumes like Carob and Tamarind in order to increase the environmental benefits we all could derive from it.  Achievement of an optimal result would depend on a simultaneous undertaking of the following actions:

Promotion of pulse consumption:

1. Active public education concerning the direct and the indirect benefits of their consumption, and inform the public of the fallacy of regarding pulses as ‘health food’.
2. Facilitate the inventive uses of pulses in cookery, and actively disseminate the know-how so produced.
3. Encourage meal-providing institutions like schools, hospitals, etc., to increase their use of pulses.

Promotion of production:

1. Inclusion of the appropriate types of pulse in the package of produce proposed in connection with the discussion on how to help 15-17 year olds to take up agriculture.
2. Establishment, extension or maintenance of the infra-structure required to raise and dispose of pulses. In fact, pulses are among the least technology-intensive of crops, which makes them eminently suitable for countries with high unemployment and prevalence of hunger.
3. Enforceable and enforced laws that embody justice and fair play with respect to land tenure, the possibility of selling one’s products for a fair price, and access to financial resources at favourable terms.
4. Pro-active agricultural extension services that may encourage  farmers to take up  the cultivation of pulses, provide advice, on-the-job training and technical assistance, and in extreme cases,  even seed.
5. Encouraging the producers (this applies to all agricultural production) to establish and run cooperatives to store, process (often partially), transport and sell their own produce  to avoid unfair food prices for the producer and the end user, as well as to reduce waste inherent in ‘the modern food systems’.
6. Expanding the use of vetches yielding edible seeds as a ground cover and a soil enhancer in plantations of tropical fruits (bananas) and other suitable cultivars.
7. Though not pulses, many hardy leguminous  plants like Carob and Tamarind are very useful in reclaiming barren and semi-barren land,  re-establishing the plant cover that regulate the ground-space heat exchange, water retention, etc.
8. Research on optimal mixed farming on small scale (family farm level) where pulses are given the importance they are accorded by the local food cloture, and disseminating  the know-how gained.

I hope this might be of some use.

Cheers!

Lal Manavado.