Checking the pulses

摘要

In the arable world, you would be forgiven for thinking that pulses have become the poor relation to some of the mainstream grain crops in recent decades. As members of the EU, traditional market management skewed favour towards the energy-dense graincrops that fuelled investment and production. The result has been a surplus of grain in the EU and a widening deficit of plant protein, which is being filled largely with soybeans and meal from the Americas.In terms of crop area, the UK typically grows 200,000 hectares of combinable pulses, which is somewhat dwarfed by the 1.8 million hectares of wheat.