Successful cultivation of gram and lentil with improved practices

摘要

Pulses occupy an important place in dietary diversity, especially, in vegetarian diet. The World Health Organization estimates that up to 80 per cent of heart diseases, stroke and Type 2 diabetes can be prevented by eliminating unhealthy diet and promoting better eating habits of which pulses are an essential component. Pulses improve and maintain soil fertility as they fix atmospheric nitrogen through symbiotic relationship with Rhizobium bacteria present in their root zone. By doing this, they fulfill the major part of their own nitrogen requirement and also add nitrogen to the soil, which is useful in following the crop as nitrogen requirement of next crop is reduced by about 25 percent. About 44 and 34 kg nitrogenper acre is fixed in soil by gram and lentil, respectively. These crops improve the physical properties of soil as their tap root system goes deep in soil. They also add a large amount of organic carbon in soil in the form of roots and leaf fall before harvesting. Thus, pulses are important for sustaining soil health. However, in Punjab, due to predominance of rice-wheat cropping system, the area under pulse crops has declined substantially. Although rice-wheat cropping system provides good returns to farmers, yet it has created several problems such as decline jh water table, increased incidence of insect pests, environmental pollution etc. These problems can be minimized through crop diversification. During rabi season, chickpea and lentil can be grown. There is a large gap in the potential and realized yield of pulses. To maximize the productivity of rabi pulses in Punjab, following recommended practices should be adopted.