FAO celebrates World Pulses Day 2024

On World Pulses Day we recognize their contribution and demonstrate that they can play a fundamental role in reducing hunger and malnutrition, while building a more sustainable future for the planet.

Red lentils (Lens culinaris Medik.)

©FAO/Alessandra Benedetti

08/02/2024

The Food and Agriculture of the United Nations (FAO) observed World Pulses Day 2024 with the theme, ‘Pulses: nourishing soils and people’. Pulses, that is dried beans, lentils, peas and many others, have been with us for centuries and yet remain a largely untapped resource in the quest to nourish everyone on planet earth. They are not only good for health and nutrition, they contribute to the livelihoods of millions of farmers, nourish our soils and protect the environment.

Nearly 1 000 people attended online and in person the event that celebrated the vital role of pulses and their potential to improve food security and nutrition, soil health and the environment.

On World Pulses Day we recognize their contribution and demonstrate that they can play a fundamental role in reducing hunger and malnutrition, while building a more sustainable future for the planet.


From left to right: Leonard Mizzi Head of Unit - European Commission; H.E. Fatimata Cheiffou Ambassador, Permanent Representative of the Republic of the Niger; Director-General QU Dongyu; Marcela Villarreal, Director of the Partnerships and UN Collaboration Division. ©FAO/Alessandra Benedetti	Director-General QU Dongyu and Marcela Villarreal, Director of the Partnerships and UN Collaboration Division. ©FAO/Alessandra Benedetti

QU Dongyu, FAO’s Director-General, said that pulses are resilient crops that flourish with minimal external inputs and so can transform agrifood systems and help feed a growing global population, even as the environment comes under greater pressure.

“The climate crisis, biodiversity loss, soil erosion and degradation are key challenges, and pulses can be part of the solution," the Director-General said.

“Their ability to thrive in diverse climates, together with their nitrogen-fixing properties, makes them very valuable.”

The FAO Director-General reinforced FAO’s commitment to support Members and farmers; and to collaborate with researchers and stakeholders to unlock the potentials of pulses to achieve better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind ,as outlined in the FAO Strategic Framework 2022-31.

Keynote addresses were delivered by Mitsuaki Shindo, Minister Counsellor and Deputy Permanent Representative of Japan to FAO; Leonard Mizzi, Deputy Director - European Commission, Directorate F, DG International Partnerships; Jens Busma, Head of Agriculture and Rural Development Division, Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and Vijay Iyengar, the President of the Global Pulse Confederation.

In his keynote address, Shindo Mitsuaki, Minister Counsellor and Deputy Permanent Representative of Japan to FAO stressed the importance of pulses in the Japanese diet, and in particular the role red beans and of soybeans.

Leonard Mizzi, Head of Unit - European Commission, Directorate F, DG International Partnerships. ©FAO/Alessandra Benedetti

SHINDO Mitsuaki, Minister Counsellor, Deputy Permanent Representative to FAO, Permanent Mission of Japan to the International Organizations in Rome. ©FAO/Alessandra Benedetti

Jens Busma, head of the Agriculture and Rural Development Division, at Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), said soil health was essential for building sustainable agrifood systems and his government is supporting more than 200 projects with the European Union to improve soils for the crops of partner countries.

Since 2015, he said projects had helped more than 600 000 smallholder farmers apply sustainable soil management and had been able to rehabilitate more than 800 000 hectares of land, directly benefiting the lives of over 2 million people.

Leonard Mizzi, the Deputy Director General, Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA) of the European Commission called for more research and investment as well as increased involvement from the private sector to promote pulses in the light of increased conflict, climate change and other pressures.

He said pulses were nutritious, affordable, environmentally friendly and had a long shelf life. “It is an opportunity crop, not a forgotten crop,” he said.

Vijay Iyengar, the President of the Global Pulse Confederation, spoke about the declining health of our soils and the need to change production and dietary habits to achieve sustainability. He said the grocery cart has to be affordable to provide nutrition for the entire family and the carbon footprint of food consumption should also be reduced.

Vijay Iyengar, President, Global Pulse Confederation (GPC) and World Pulses Day event attendees. ©FAO/Alessandra Benedetti

Anneke Trux, head of the Global Programme “Soil Protection and Rehabilitation for Food Security” for the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), announced the release of a new cookbook entitled, “It’s Soilicious”.

She said pulses were once considered a food for the poor but were undergoing a remarkable renaissance in the culinary world and could make a huge difference to carbon emissions, and the use of land and water.

Cecilia Baginsky, Associate Professor at the University of Chile’s Faculty of Agronomic Sciences, called for an expansion of pulse production saying legume crops have helped to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while new varieties of beans were resistant to drought and high temperatures.

Focusing on nutrition, Julianne Curran, the Vice President of Market Innovation at
Pulse Canada, said pulses were a unique food source and that there were huge opportunities to leverage their nutritional value across the food supply. She said 100 grams of cooked pulses would boost the daily intake of proteins, fibre, calcium and other nutrients.

From left to right: Anneke Trux, Head of Global Programme “Soil Protection and Rehabilitation for Food Security”; H.E. Fatimata Cheiffou, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of the Republic of the Niger; Chikelu Mba, Deputy Director, Plant Production and Protection Division (NSP); Cecilia Baginsky, Associate Professor, Faculty of Agronomic Sciences, University of Chile . ©FAO/Alessandra Benedetti

Damaris Achieng Odeny, Principal Scientist at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), proposed the pigeon pea as “the perfect pulse” to regenerate depleted soils in Africa because it was drought-resistent and required minimal inputs for production.

Her Excellency, Madam Fatimata Cheiffou, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of the Republic of the Niger and Chair of the World Pulses Day Steering Committee, delivered the closing remarks, noting the importance of using pulses to ameliorate soil degradation and reduce malnutrition and hunger, particularly in Africa.

‘’Africa is the home of almost 1.5 billion people and soil degradation hampers the possibility of achieving food security for the continent,’’ Cheiffou said. “For this reason, we need to foster the inclusion of pulses and, legume in general, in the actual cereal-based agricultural systems.’’

Marcela Villareal, Director of the FAO Partnerships and UN Collaboration Division, and Chikelu Mba, Deputy Director of the FAO Plant Production and Protection Division, moderated the event.

The United Nations General Assembly designated 10 February as World Pulses Day. Building on the success of the International Year of Pulses implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2016, and to further achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the World Pulses Day continues to be celebrated every year all over the world.