Encouraging smallholder farmers to grow pulses and teaching them how to conserve the nutritious seeds is the best approach to promoting pluses.

According to Elizabeth Mpofu, one of the six special ambassadors appointed by FAO to strengthen the campaign for this year’s International Year of Pulses (IYP), smallholderfarmers and family farmers should be encouraged to grow pulses to accelerate food production.

Pulses are annual leguminous crops yielding between one to twelve grains or seed of variable size, shape and colour within the pod used for both food and feed. The term pulses are limited to crops harvested for dried grains, thereby, excluding crops harvested mainly for extractions.