Video: Focus areas in pulses

By Prof. Kadambot H.M. Siddique, Hackett Professor of Agriculture Chair and Director, The UWA Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia, Perth.

Pulses play an important role in farming systems and are good for health. Their agronomic practices need to be translated for resource-poor farmers. Three areas call for greater attention: a socio-economic analysis of why pulses are not adopted more, exploring their genetic potential and educating the public about their importance.

This video is one in a series created by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) for the International Year of Pulses. Pulses including pigeonpeas and chickpeas are some of the mandate crops of ICRISAT. Research focus is on (a) improved grain quality, nutritional traits, food safety, nitrogen fixing properties, hybrids, and (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.

The views expressed here belong to the speaker and do not necessarily represent FAO’s views, positions, strategies or opinions.