COIMBATORE, TAMIL NADU, January 27, 2011: India’s population and economy are booming, increasing the demand for food and fueling inflation. Most of its people are vegetarians, which is an efficient use of soil, but to improve health and nutrition the country’s government now wants to increase the per capita consumption of protein-rich bean pulses. But domestic production has been static for years, resulting in more imports from around the world. Last year, India produced 14.6 million tons of pulses and imported 3.5 million tons. Canada is a leading source of India’s pulse imports.
A push by India’s state and national governments to grow pulses as a nitrogen source for the land and a protein source for its people has not caught on with the country’s farmers. Pulses are not the easiest crop to grow in India, said Dr. P. Santhana Krishnan, liaison officer with Tamil Nadu Agricultural University at Coimbatore. Lack of irrigation, labour, mechanization and changing weather patterns have helped diminish pulses in many farmers’ eyes.
In the southern state of Tamil Nadu, farmers can grow 700 to 800 lb. per acre of pulses under irrigation. However, only four percent of the farm land is irrigated. In a good year, farmers can grow about 360 lb. per acre on dry land. But if rains are not timely, yields can be as low as 180 lb. per acre. Considering that 80 percent of India’s farmers own less than two acres, the yield from a poor pulse crop is not enough to pay their bills.