المنتدى العالمي المعني بالأمن الغذائي والتغذية

Hello moderator 

Multipurpose benefits of pulses were understood from ancient times. My point is a bit different from your problem. You might have heard that farmers in developing countries grow pulses species as inter-cropping, mixed cropping or relay-cropping with cereal and other crops. Inputs and other management practices affect production of other crops in such systems. Nowadays many Nepali farmers have experienced failure of some legume crops in their farm. Based on discussion with the farmers the problem is caused by exotic poisoning of agro-ecological systems. The local varieties used to thriving in soil with poor fertility have been disappeared. These  problems cannot be understood by working on the computer of head quarter or visiting rural areas as a development tourist. The problem is not limited to the pulses species. If anybody wants to know details please visit farms, experience the real life problems and discuss with the farmers. However, research, development support and policy advising agencies have been strategically imposing the varieties and other practices those they developed and valued. They have little cared or ignored how they spoiled adaptive systems and made farmers vulnerable. Developing high yielding varieties may not necessarily increase consumption of poor people though it can increase profit to large farmers and commercial growers. I suggest you to work first for addressing the problems instead of doing new propaganda.   

Based on my family experiences, changing dietary systems and availability of alternatives have reduced consumption of pulses. When our family had low level of green vegetables specially in dry seasons (January to June) our parents used to cook sprout of soybean and other beans in addition to a soup (Daal) of pulses. The consumption of sprout item has been dramatically decreased with increasing availability and access of fresh vegetables. Consumption of some amount of pulses specially in the form of soup with rice is common practices in Nepal. Roasted soybean or peas with pupped corn was supplementary item in snacks. The trend of consuming popped corn is decreased. The people migrated in overseas have also started eating rice one time in a day. Therefore pulses consumption practices of Nepali people are decreased. The change might have some negative  effect on vegeterian's health. Development of new cooked products fitted well in changing dietary systems might increase the level of consumption of the pulses. 

Many thanks for reading my comments and suggestions. 

Bhubaneswor Dhakal