Pulses Value Chain Development for Achieving Food and Nutrition Security in South Asia: Current Status and Future Prospects

Pulses are important crops in the cropping systems of several developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In South Asia, pulses account for 15% of the cropped area and are grown mainly on less fertile and marginal lands as intercrops with cereals and oilseeds. Besides being environmentally friendly (by fixing soil nitrogen), pulses contribute towards food security, and more importantly nutrition security, particularly for low-income consumers. South Asia accounts for 24% of global pulse production with India accounting for 90% of the production. However, since the seventies per capita pulse consumption has been declining in South Asia, although since 2008 it started trending up at a slow pace. To meet the growing deficit of pulses its global trade increased rapidly from 7.2 million tonnes in 2000 to 17 million tonnes in 2016. To meet the export demand, pulse production diversified, with developed countries emerging as the main exporters while developing countries were the main importers. The exceptions were South Eastern Asia (Myanmar) and Eastern Africa, which also emerged as important exporters. South Asia accounted for 49% of global pulse imports in 2016 with India accounting for two thirds of the imports to the region. Severe crisis of pulses in the recent past led to the path-breaking policy interventions in South Asia, especially in India viz., increasing availability of quality seeds, enhancement in minimum support price (MSP), assured procurement by government agencies and maintenance of buffer stock of pulses. These interventions attracted farmers towards growing pulses and played a key role in increasing the pulses production. In general, Chickpea, Pigeonpea, Green gram (mungbean) Black gram (urdbean), Lentil, Grass pea, and Soybean fall under the pulses group in South Asia. Due to the gap between supply and demand for pulses conumption, the price of pulses increased sharply over the years leading to import of pulses to fulfill the local requirement. A higher consumer demand was observed for the imported products mainly due to the quality and low price. Though pulses are low input crops, cost of production and gross return of pulses have shown an increasing trend over the past. The importance of mechanization in pulse crops is highly emphasized to reduce the cost of production. Productivity constraints of insect pests and diseases in the field and storage conditions are perceived as being very important. Most of the South Asian 2 countries are placing high priority on modernization of agricultural practices, improvement of productivity and competitiveness in marketing in domestic and international markets while enhancing the value addition and product diversification to generate new income and viable employment opportunities.