Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

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Pulses are praised for their health, environmental and economic benefits. How can their full potential be tapped?

Pulses are important food crops that can play a major role in addressing global food security and environmental challenges, as well as contribute to healthy diets.

In recognition of the contributions that pulses can make to human well-being and to the environment, the UN General Assembly declared 2016 as the International Year of Pulses.

However, most people do not know what exactly pulses are:

According to FAO (1994), pulses, a subgroup of legumes, are crop plant members of the Leguminosae family (commonly known as the pea family) that produce edible seeds, which are used for human and animal consumption. Only legumes harvested for dry grain are classified as pulses. For example, grain legumes used mainly for oil production, such as soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr.), are not considered pulses. Likewise, legumes used for sowing purposes (e.g. Medicago sativa L.) or as vegetables are not considered pulses.

Pulses are a critical and inexpensive source of plant-based proteins, vitamins and minerals for people around the globe. They have a low fat content, contain zero cholesterol, and are a significant source of dietary fibre. Moreover, they contain no gluten and are rich in minerals and B vitamins, all of which are important for a healthy life.

From an agricultural point of view, multiple cropping systems that include pulses enhance soil fertility, improve yields, and contribute to a more sustainable food system. It is particularly noteworthy that pulses have a very low water footprint compared with other protein sources, and can be grown in very poor soils where other crops cannot be cultivated. Crop residues of pulses, and legumes in general, can also be used as animal fodder, thus increasing the quality of the animal diet.

Furthermore, pulses can play an important role in climate change adaptation, since they have a broad genetic diversity from which climate-resilient varieties can be selected and/or bred.

Pulses form part of the local cuisine in many parts of the world and are a highly traded commodity. However, despite the benefits highlighted above, their consumption at an individual level has seen a slow but steady decline, and production has not increased at the same rate as other commodities such as cereals. North Africa is the only region that has experienced any growth (only slight growth, in fact) in individual consumption.

Recognizing the enormous potential of these crops, the International Year of Pulses aims to raise awareness on the beneficial impact they can have on food security, nutrition and the environment; to encourage an increase in their production; and to highlight the need for enhanced investment in research and development and in extension services.

It also aims to increase the adoption of pulses as a central part of people’s meals around the globe, as well as providing information on how to best prepare and consume them.

In order to make the International Year of Pulses truly inclusive and to gather as much information as possible on the use of these remarkable plants, we would like to invite you to contribute your experience and knowledge, in particular around the following questions:

  • Some countries produce large amounts of pulses, but these are not a part of their respective diets. How can the use of pulses be increased in communities where these crops do not play an important role in the local cuisine/traditional meals?
  • Do you have any examples on how the consumption of pulses contributes to household food security and nutrition in your community or country, which may be useful in different contexts?
  • What are the main challenges that farmers in your country face with regard to the production of pulses? How should these be addressed?
  • Are you aware of any research or studies on the role of pulses in climate change adaptation or mitigation? Please share them with us.
  • The International Year of Pulses also includes a call for recipes to provide ideas and inspiration on how to consume these nutritious seeds. Would you like to share yours?

Your suggestions, case studies and references will be used to produce fact sheets and briefs to circulate at events and initiatives carried out at regional and country levels during the International Year of Pulses.

International Year of Pulses Secretariat

 

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Dr. Dhanya Praveen

Environment Protection Training and Research Institute, Hyderabad
India

Thanks for the opportunity. In recognition of its significance in the daily nutritional requirement of living beings, the organization of this forum in the International Year of Pulses demands great attention.

In our country India, people have a larger dependence on pulses a food crop as well as cash crop. Due to failure of monsoon, climate change impacts,  the rates of pulses have gone up beyond imagination.

1. As far as my working state Telangana (Newly formed State) - is concerned, even though it is a frequently drought hit region, people go in for cotton cultivation which is water intensive. During my field works, I could understand that it is very hard to make the communities follow our instructions and make them understand the need to change the existing mal cropping practices and shift to pulses crop from cotton, considering the need of the hour as part of the changing climate scenario. Capacity building on this aspect is very essential.

2. It is highly essential for the scientific community to understand the physiology of the pulses crops (Green Gram, Red Gram, Black Gram )and develop more ( Crop Simulation model based ) scientific knowhow on the same as to anticipate the probable changes in crop responses due to likely changes in the climate .

Thank you & Best regards,

Link To New Publication



http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0147541#sec022



http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/NWT7pYGazj87fdemW5GB/full



Dr.Dhanya Praveen, Ph.D.,

Scientist, Climate Change Division

Environmental Protection Training and Research Institute

Gachibowli, Telangana-500032, India.

Pulses, and especially common bean, are important staple crops in many East African countries and provide an important source of protein and calories. Their productivity, however, is still far below potential. Challenges to enhance production of pulses are often not only found at field level, but require understanding of the farm level and farming systems as pulses are grown among many other crops and smallholders rarely invest all their resources in a single crop.

In the densely populated highlands of East Africa, climbing beans offer potential to intensify bean production compared to bush beans. Climbing beans have been successfully introduced in some East African countries (e.g. Rwanda), but there is still considerable potential to extend their cultivation. Through the N2Africa project (www.n2africa.org) we work on the extension of climbing beans in the highlands in eastern and southwestern Uganda. Challenges to expand the production of climbing beans in these areas include access to staking materials, to cash to obtain inputs and to labour. This implies that climbing beans may be more or less suitable for certain types of farmers, and that we may need to offer a ‘basket of options’ of climbing bean technologies that require more or less of farmers’ scarce resources. We are developing such options through a co-design process, consisting of an iterative cycle of co-design, implementation and evaluation of climbing bean technologies.

Some results from the co-design of climbing bean technologies in Uganda:

-          Farmers find yield an important criterion to judge the success of a new technology, but use it next to other criteria which differ between poorer and wealthier farmers, men and women, and different areas.

-          Men and women value different attributes of technologies; when comparing two climbing bean varieties, women for instance placed relatively more emphasis on characteristics of the leaves (used as vegetable), maturity time and taste, which may reflect women’s involvement in the production of beans for home consumption.

-          Although we aimed to find low-cost staking materials as an alternative for wooden stakes, farmers still prefer wooden stakes for their ease of implementation and relatively low labour requirements. This shows the difficulty of finding solutions to address the challenges of the poorest farmers.

As a next step, we tested issues that emerged from the co-design process in agronomy trials:

-          As farmers still prefer wooden stakes but also have challenges accessing it, farmers sometimes cut longer stakes in two to plant a larger area. We normally advise farmers to use long stakes, as the longer the stake the better the yield. However, as yield is only one of the criteria that farmers use, we set up an additional experiment to find out to what extent the yield obtained by taller stakes would outweigh the costs for staking.

-          Demonstrations of improved technologies in the project all involved sole crops of climbing bean. As about three quarter of the farmers in eastern and southwestern Uganda grows their climbing beans in intercropping with banana, coffee or other crops, we decided to set up an experiment on intercropping of climbing bean with banana. We pruned leaves of banana plants to enable the beans to receive more light for a better yield. This way, we adjust our experiments to develop recommendations that have better local relevance.

Results of such a co-design process lead to the development of a basket of locally relevant options and diversified extension messages that can be applied in our efforts to address the challenges of smallholder farmers producing pulses.

Massimo Iannetta

ENEA
Italy

Here enclosed my contribution to the consultation.

Best regards.

Dr. Massimo Iannetta

“Biotechnologies and Agroindustry”- Division Head

Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development

Centro Ricerche Casaccia, Via Anguillarese, 301 - 00123 S.M. di Galeria (RM)

 

  • What are the main challenges that farmers in your country face with regard to the production of pulses? How should these be addressed?

The main challenge faced by Italian farmers with regard to the production of pulses is posed by the low income level that they can achieve from leguminous crops. Their productivity is generally quite low and, with few exceptions, the price does not compensate the yield gap respect to cereals or other more profitable field crops. In spite of their many positive features, including high nutritional quality and atmospheric nitrogen fixation, many farmers are reluctant to include leguminous crops in the rotations of their farms. To address this problem we can either raise the pulse price or to increase their productivity. For the first approach geographic origin protection and other strategies to add value to local productions can offer good opportunities. For example, lentils of certified origin from Castelluccio (Central Italy) are generally sold at a higher price in Italy, because generally considered of better quality than other lentils. This marketing strategy is obviously restricted to market niches, but is not fully exploited and offers other opportunities for other pulses. For the second strategy we would need substantial investments in research and innovation, which can reduce, if not abate, the yield gap between leguminous crops and cereals. As a matter of fact, the investments dedicated to the improvement of maize productivity are many folds higher than those allocated to leguminous crops. This difference explains at least partially their lower productivity. The knowledge recently gathered on leguminous genomics, not to say about the other “omic” sciences, offer an excellent starting base for a big research and innovation endeavor.

 

 

Manuel Moya

International Pediatric Association. TAG on Nutrition
Spain

The approach from childhood of this important food type is based in the high number of under –fives all over the world especially in low- meddle-income countries (1) and because the long lasting consequences (growth and cognitive) that undernutrition can have at these ages (2, 3).

In LMIC after the first year of life gruel/ congee is widely and almost exclusively used. These normally coming from flours from cereals which are poor in essential amino acids such as lysine and to a lesser extent tryptophan and phenylalanine. If we take into account that cooked chickpeas (protein 8.4 g/100 g) and lentils (protein 8.8 g/100 g) contain lysine respectively 485 mg/ 100 g and 613 mg/ 100 g, the combination of pulses with local and culturally rooted gruels could improve the protein quality consumed. Other pulses should not be neglected, particularly if they are local crops, but they should only be recommended if protein and essential amino acids content is acceptable. This protein improvement cannot be taken as definitive, other nutrient needs at these ages such as fat, Ca, P, Na, K, Fe and niacin should also be planned.

As regards the fourth question ‘How could we increase their use?’ The response is planning and education. Governments should locally incentivate the crops of pulses due to their resilience in the strict rain fed lands and the elusive import of these products. Their availability in the local shops should be promoted.   Education has two main targets: famers and parents, for growing them and for using at home in a rotating way.

HIC also require a redesign action to increase the consumption of pulses due to the fact that processed food and refined carbohydrates are taking over the traditional plant food.           

Manuel Moya

References

  1. Unicef, WHO, World Bank Group. Levels and trends in child malnutrition. 2015 edition. www.who.int/nutrition.
  2. Boyd A, GoldingJ, Mcleod J ent al. Cohot profile: the children of the 90s’- the index offspring of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. Int J Epidemiol 2013; 2: 111-27.
  3. Galler J, Bryce C, Waber DP et al. Socioeconomic Outcomes in Adult Malnourished in the First Year of Life: A 40-Year study. Pediatrics 201; 130:e1-e7                                                                                                                                       

David Bergvinson

Director General of ICRISAT
India

Pulses are Smart Food

Pulses are under-recognized for their value and their importance in diversification and complementing other foods. They are critical for both farmers and consumers. ICRISAT’s research focuses on: (a) improved grain quality, nutritional traits, food safety, nitrogen fixing properties and hybrids. (b) drought tolerance and adaptation to diverse dryland agroecosystems and to differing rotations with cereal crops. Breeding is enhanced with modern genomic and molecular tools, precise phenotyping and crop simulation modeling. ICRISAT works along the whole value chain of pulses in an integrated manner to create a win-win situation for the farmer, consumer and the planet.

Pulses are Smart Food as they are:

Good for you

  • Pulse crops such as lentils, beans, pigeonpeas and chickpeas are a critical part of the general food basket 
  • Important source of plant-based protein and amino acids for people around the globe
  • As part of a healthy diet they help address obesity, manage chronic diseases like diabetes, coronary conditions and cancer

Good for the Planet

  • Highly water efficient, pulses are smart crops that grow in drought prone areas
  • Helps improve soil fertility by fixing nitrogen and promoting soil microbes
  • Pulses make a positive contribution in reducing release of greenhouse gases

Good for the Smallholder Farmer

  • Pulses can better withstand climate change thus reducing risk for the smallholder farmer
  • Multi-use crop – food, fodder, fuel, building material – helps improve livelihoods of farmers
  • Particularly important for female farmers, who are the larger share of the labor force in pulses farming.

Click here to know more.

Some of the identified constraints to pulses production are:

  • Inadequate knowledge of farmers and extension personnel of the available improved pulse cultivars and technologies related to it.
  • Inadequate access of farmers to quality seeds and other farm inputs.
  • Poor adoption of improved cultivars and recommended crop production practices.
  • Lack of varieties that resist excessive vegetative growth under high moisture/fertility conditions.
  • High vulnerability of pulse crops to both the biotic (pests and diseases) and abiotic stresses (temperature extremes and aberrant rainfall driven by climate change).
  • Pulses are largely grown in marginal lands under rain-fed conditions without many inputs leaving low space for any potential improvement.
  • Inadequate availability of labour-saving technologies (varieties suitable for machine harvesting, herbicide resistance) for pulses.
  • Pulses are also prone to damage by the storage pests.
  • Wide fluctuations in the farm gate price of the pulses.

Data on understanding the grain legumes’ environment in the target countries have been obtained from baseline studies through household surveys (e.g. Asfaw et al. 2009; Kiresur et al. 2009a, 2009b; Lokesha et al. 2009a, 2009b; Ndjeunga et al. 2010; Simtowe et al. 2009; and Suhasini et al. 2009a, 2009b); situation analyses studies (Kassie et al. 2009; Katungi et al. 2009); literature reviews of published works (Shiferaw et al. 2008a; Abate et al. 2011, 2012; Kassie et al. 2011). Major conclusions from the baseline and situation analysis studies include:

  • Rural smallholder households dominated by aging populations (avg. 48 yrs) and low levels of education (<4 yrs schooling);
  • Research systems in SSA region also face the aging population issue, with the average age of researchers >50 years;
  • Grain legumes account for <20% of the total cultivated area in majority of the target countries (except in Niger, Malawi, and Kenya);
  • Use of improved, modern varieties was generally low across target countries during baseline studies; unavailability of improved seed and, in some cases, lack of access to credit were identified as major bottlenecks for their adoption;
  • More than 70% farmers use their own saved seed across target countries; (except Kenya, where own saved seed accounted for just over 34%);
  • The current investment in Agriculture Research for Development (AR4D) falls short of the recommended 1-1.5% intensity ratio (i.e., investment as percentage of Agriculture output).

The other issue that has emerged if the funding availability for research on pulses. Results of the ‘Global Pulse Productivity & Sustainability Survey’ indicates that the annual investment in pulses is about US$175m for the 13 crops in the pulse category, while billions are invested into other crops such as corn. A media release about the report was issued by the Global Pulse Confederation during the Pan African Legume conference in Zambia on 1 March. Several common themes emerged from the surveys, with the overarching visions for pulse crop research not varying a great deal between developed and developing nations. There is a strong desire and action across all national and global research and funding agencies to develop genomics tools for breeding programs, conduct state-of-the-art breeding programs for improvement in genetic gain, pest resistance and quality, improve crop production and crop protection practices, produce food sustainably, transfer information in a useable form, help make farming profitable, and develop new resilience in crops to meet climate change challenges, including drought and heat. In addition, all global funding agencies mention ending chronic hunger, providing nutritional foodstuffs to end malnutrition, and focusing on maternal health and the gender gap. These themes resonate around the world and across economies. The complete report can be accessed here.

ICRISAT has made strong intervention to increase pulse productivity.

a) CGIAR research program in Grain Legumes (CRP-GL) is led by ICRISAT to improve:

  • Productivity and stability of these crops in diverse farming systems.
  • Marketability of these crops in local, national and international domains.
  • Nutritional value of these crops. Increased consumption of grain legumes resulting from higher productivity and affordability is enabling smallholder farm families to better meet their nutritional requirements for protein, oil, micronutrients, vitamins, fiber and healthier carbohydrates.
  • The contribution of grain legume germplasm and management techniques that its sister CRPs utilise to improve sustainability and resilience of farming systems.

The program focuses on addressing the following issues:

1.       Addressing abiotic stresses and climate change effects

PL 1. Drought and low-phosphorous tolerant common bean, cowpea, and soybean

PL 2. Heat-tolerant chickpea, common bean, faba bean and lentil

PL 3. Short-duration, drought-tolerant and aflatoxin-free groundnut

2.       Capturing unique legume ability to fix nitrogen

PL 4. High nitrogen-fixing chickpea, common bean, faba bean and soybean

3.       Managing key biotic stresses

PL 5. Insect-smart chickpea, cowpea, and pigeonpea production systems

4.       Generating new opportunities to intensify cropping systems

PL 6. Extra-early chickpea and lentil varieties

PL 7. Herbicide-tolerant, machine-harvestable chickpea, faba bean and lentil varieties

PL 8. Pigeonpea hybrid and management practices

Read more about the CGIAR Research program on Grain Legumes here.

View the Grain legumes – flyer here.

b) Strategy paper on Pulses: At the request of the Prime Minister’s Office, Government of India, to prepare a long-term strategy to increase economic opportunities for rural families in India, ICRISAT prepared a set of six strategy papers: 1) Pulses 2) PMKSY 3) Soil Mapping 5) Agri Markets 5) Crop Insurance and 6) Digital Agriculture. The Strategy paper on Pulses provided a set of recommendations to achieve self-sufficiency in pulses production by 2020.

Achieving self-sufficiency in pulse production in India - Video link.

As a follow up, ICRISAT, as requested by the Government of India, hosted a high-level planning meeting at its headquarters in Hyderabad, which was chaired by Mr Shobhana K Pattanayak, Secretary, Agriculture, Department of Agriculture Cooperation & Farmers Welfare (DoAC & FW), Government of India. Mr Pattanayak called on all value chain actors including farmers, seed companies, private sector and research organizations to find a joint solution to resolve all hurdles and issues that are preventing Indian farmers from meeting their demand for hybrid pigeonpea seeds and other pulses. Read more here.  

Talk on the Indian pulse industry by Dr Bergvinson: Video link.

C) Maintaining a gene bank: Identifying germplasm with new sources of resistance to diseases and pests, tolerance to climatic and other environmental stress and improved quality and yield traits for crop improvement. More information on the genebank can be obtained here.

Dr Bergvinson on “From genebank to farmer’s hand” can be read here.

d) Breeding programs: Contribute improved germplasm, breeding lines and cultivars that raise land productivity and yield stability. Varieties and hybrids that are resistant to pests and diseases, drought tolerant, biofortified, etc., contribute to improved yields, better returns and improved nutritive value.

Know more on the center of genomics here.  Know more on crop physiology here.

Examples on how consumption of pulses contributes to household food security and nutrition in communities/countries of operation

Read more here. Watch video here.

Additional information links

ICRISAT IYP Page: http://www.icrisat.org/iyp/

Publication on Pulses: http://oar.icrisat.org/

Videos of ICRISAT mandate crops: https://www.youtube.com/user/icrisatco

100 Voices Video series on topical issues: http://www.icrisat.org/100-voices/

ICRISAT’s contribution to the SDGs: http://www.icrisat.org/sdg/

Pulse Recipes: For interesting pulse recipes click here

Greetings:

It gives me great pleasure to contribute something on this Forum. In my country Ethiopia, pulses are a very important part of the food system. From my experience, every farmer grows a combination of cereals, pulses, oil seeds etc in a piece of land.

Pulses are consumed almost in every household  in different forms. Among them we have "Shiro wet" which is cooked from the powder of beans and which is the most common all over the country. There are also a lot of advantages our farmers get from pulses. For instance, they are used for intercropping with cereals to improve soil fertility, as green manuring, and as animal feed among many other uses.

Regards

Hagos

Dear All,

Thanks for initiaing the discussion on pulses at this crucial time!

The production and consumption of pulses are increasingly getting more attention across the world. What led to this critical situation and why the risk of inadequate consumption of pulses is more alarming for a majority of people across the world, especially the poor and marginalised? Was this because of our policies and programmes which often focus more on cereals like paddy and wheat or it is because of the limited research and technologies available for pulses as compared to the cereals or because of a neglected and mismanaged supply chain? Yes, we have to admit that we have neglected the production of pulses over the years by providing incentives and quality extension services for cereals and in doing so we have also motivated the farming communities towards increased adoption of cereals based farming systems. As a result of which the poor people has to pay a double price for the commonly consumed pulses. Where they can get money for increasing pulses consumption when rice is available at Rs 1-3 per kg in most states of India through the government subsidised schemes. So the solution for the small and marginal holders is the inclusion of pulses in their farming systems, which often enhances farm resilience and productivity of soil in the context of climate change. At this backdrop, actions should start in the form of suitable policies and programmes with adequate incentives and extension services to the farmers, especially the small and marginal ones and mass campaign to augment increased adoption of pulses based farming systems. More funds should be kept for research and extension on pulses based farming systems. Integrated farming systems like Agroforestry should be prioritised especially in the community-owned lands and government wastelands. Involvement of all key stakeholders including civil society, women's networks , farmers federations and community based organisations must be ensured in the policy designing and imlementation farmework. Besides, period monitoring and sharing of best practices can help in achieving the goals in the timeline.

Regards,

Manoj, India

Fernanda Grande

FAO
Italy

I would like to provide my answers to two questions posed during the webinar "Pulses for Food Security and Nutrition" and that we could not answer due to lack of time.

Question posed by Mohamed:

What are the specific advantages of pulses for small children?

Pulses represent a good source of plant-based protein, B vitamins and minerals which are important nutrients for growth. A common problem regarding complementary feeding, especially in some developing countries, is that young children are fed thin, watery cereal-based porridges that cannot supply them with the energy and nutrients they need for growth. Therefore pulses are a good choice to include in complementary feeding as part of a diversified diet.

Question posed by Mona Dhamankar:

Is it true that one needs to eat large quantities of pulses in order to meet the recommended daily allowance of protein? as compared to animal protein?

Yes, it is true. Protein content of meat, for example, is double the content of cooked beans. So to have the same amount of protein, a person needs to eat a larger portion of pulses. Moreover, it is also important to remember that in order to increase the protein quality of meals we can consume pulses with cereals to have a “complete” amino acid profile.

 

The recording to the full webinar is also online and available at this link: http://bit.ly/1U7sEuS

 

Kadambot Siddique

UWA Institute of Agriculture
Australia

Dear all,

Please find below a list of papers on the subject.

Grain Legumes (pulses) offer a food-based solution to decreasing risk of some non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity. Major benefits from legumes are achieved at an intake of about 30 g per day or more.

Kind regards.

Professor Dr Kadambot Siddique

The UWA Institute of Agriculture