cost effective technology for production of pulses
Answers
Areas that need focused attention
When already proven and demonstrated technologies are available to increase the productivity of pulses there is immediate need to launch a massive “Grow More Pulses Campaign” focused on motivating and providing incentives for farmers.The following areas need immediate attention.
Include chickpea in rice-fallows, pigeon-pea in rice-wheat cropping system and pigeon-pea at high altitudesBring more area under pulses, raise pulses under irrigation, use high-yielding varieties of pulses and adopt efficient crop production technologiesDisseminate the technology along with making available on time quality critical inputs at affordable prices to farmers.Research: Adequate financial and other resources must be committed for research and development efforts exclusively for pulse-crops in proportion to currently provided to cereals and cash crops.
Improved varieties with drought tolerance: Since pulses are raised under rain-fed conditions the development of drought tolerant varieties of pulses is a must to provide long-term solution against adverse effects of recurrent droughts being witnessed in one or the other part of the country every year.
Economic returns on financial investment in research on breeding drought-proof or drought-tolerance varieties of pulses would be significantly higher compared to spending huge amount of financial and other resources on drought management programs every year and import of pulses.
Research needs to be intensified to
[i] To develop high-yielding, short-duration strains which escape terminal drought. These short duration varieties can facilitate farmers to include them in a given cropping systems
[ii] Develop varieties with significant amount of diversity in maturity-duration of pulse crops that can facilitate their cultivation in different locations and under different production systems to increase production.
Seed Production and distribution:
A well-organized institutional infrastructure in each agro-ecological region is necessary for multiplication and distribution of seeds of drought-tolerant varieties to farmers on time. Acknowledging the importance of quality seeds in crop production as a sine qua non the Government has established National and State Seed Corporations which have been implementing seed production projects to enhance seed availability of improved varieties.
Private accredited seed companies engaged in production, processing and marketing of seeds of other crops can be encouraged to include pulses in their business and create effective demand among pulse-growing farmers.
These companies should have easy access to breeder and foundation seed and institutional credit and be encouraged to expand their capacities. This should help them put in place appropriate marketing strategies including delivery systems targeting remote areas and small farmers. Public-Private-Partnership mode can facilitate to increase the availability of breeder and foundation seeds to meet the current and emerging needs of seed producer-companies.
Field surveys show that in recent past a number of improved varieties of pulses have been released for cultivation. However, the seed replacement rate by improved strains in India varies from 14% in chickpea to 35% in soybean whereas other farmers still use their own saved seeds.
Thus, a strategic action-plan is necessary to motivate farmers to switch over to using improved seeds by replacing the use of traditional/home preserved seeds in next three years. Programs need to be designed to ensure availability of quality seeds of drought /pest-resistant and high-yielding varieties accompanied by post-harvest technology that can motivate farmers of all sizes of landholdings to allocate fairly reasonable area and resources under pulses.
For this, investment in financial and human resources is a must to create need based institutional mechanism to create demand of seeds from farmers and cost-efficient seed delivery system and simultaneously augmenting the production of required amount of quality seeds [ breeder, foundation and certified seeds] under the supervision of the seed regulatory body. Effective coordination is called for among various village PRIs, departments of the State and Union Government.