Pulses are ‘legumes’ – a French word that means ‘vegetables’ – because pods of french beans, cluster beans, yard-long beans, sword beans, green peas, etc are also used as vegetables.
The word ‘legume’ is also associated with the symbiotic nitrogen-fixing ability of plants, belonging to the undivided botanical ‘family’, Leguminosae.
The meat-eating Europeans, who were earlier dismissive about the dal-eating vegetarians – and called their food ‘pigeon pea’, ‘chick pea’, ‘horse gram’, ‘cow pea’, etc – are increasingly turning vegan due to health issues such as cholesterol imbalance and immunity to antibiotics which are also fed to poultry and animals.
Pulses have about 18 percent protein and shot into prominence during the United Nations-declared International Year of Pulses (IYP) in 2016.
FOCUS ON PULSES
The success of IYP 2016 motivated Burkina Faso to move a resolution in the General Assembly of the UNO to declare February 10 as ‘World Pulses Day’ annually. And, so it is since 2019.
IYP 2016 was celebrated at the Silver Jubilee of the ‘Festival of Plants & Flowers’ at SFX School, Siolim, on the last weekend of August with students from another 25 schools across Goa.
There were projects, presented by various schools, and even the students of the fledgling College of Agriculture in Goa learnt from their visit to the festival.
Live specimens of legumes showing the active nitrogen-fixing nodules containing Rhizobium japonicum bacteria; samples of various pulses as grain and dal; and cooked products made of pulses were presented by the students.
Students from different schools explained how pulses work for us, fixing nitrogen from the air and producing proteins for us to eat. This has become the theme of World Pulses Day 2024 – ‘Pulses: Nurishing the soils and people.’
Parents of students from SFX School presented various food and sweet dishes made from pulses so that the invitees to the inauguration could both relish and understand the use of pulses as food.
Goa’s famous besan laddoo and doce, apart from batat wada and bhajjas are made of Bengal gram, a pulse!
Who can forget the taste of sprouted moong beans or Moongancheo Gantti or Alsanddeamchem Tonddak made of cowpea? Farmers in Goa know that the rice crop grows better when alsanddo is grown in the field. This knowledge is now spreading.
World Pulse Day emphasizes the importance of pulses in addressing various United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals or SDG 2030, including poverty reduction, food security and sustainability.
As with people, the family Leguminosae has now been split into separate families, Fabaceae, Mimosaceae, Papilionaceae and Caesalpiniaceae, according to the new rules of botanical classification.
The word ‘pulses’ is normally used for the grains that we eat, but it also refers to the plants that produce them. As with other crops, pulses are best grown chemical-free, without the use of synthetic fertilizers and insecticides.
Rock phosphate and potassium from natural sources – including wood ash and coconut husk – calcium (from seashells) and limestone can be used where unavoidable due to non-availability in native soil.
Pulses produce their own nitrogen and a little extra for use by other crops.
The author is a former Chairman of the GCCI Agriculture Committee, CEO of Planter's Choice Pvt Ltd, Additional Director of OFAI and Garden Superintendent of Goa University, and has edited 18 books for Goa & Konkan
