Pulse yields: feeling the pulse

Abstract

Pulses are perhaps the most neglected components of our food grains during the green revolution and if we need to stabilize our nutritional base in the most eco-friendly and energy-efficient manner, we ought to alter our mindset from treating pulses as 'marginalized' crops. We argue here that the pulses are not as low in their yield performance as is generally projected and that this perception of lower yields is owing to a set of confounding issues. Nonetheless, we show that pulses are poor in harvesting the solar energy and in converting it to biological yield. We dissect the reasons for this inefficiency and trace that the inputs supplied to pulses is one of the major factors limiting the pulse yields. Accordingly, we call for an attitude change in our breeding protocols, production system and policy structure for pulse cultivation.