Description

Executive Summary: Pulses and other food legumes have traditionally been a source of high quality protein and micronutrients for poor people and are an important source of women’s income in many low income countries. The Green Revolution in cereal grains has reduced the price of cereals dramatically since the 1970s but the absence of similar productivity gains in food legumes has increasingly put these high-protein foods out of reach for low-income consumers. The only sustainable, economic way to reverse this situation is to substantially increase the productivity of pulses and other food legumes through a focused, coherent research program directed at building the knowledge base for sustainable productivity gains. This document summarizes the deliberations of a three-day workshop in which 50 scientists considered the most effective avenues to attain substantial, sustainable gains in the productivity of pulses, by addressing edaphic and climatic constraints with a multidisciplinary approach of genetic improvement, phenomics, biological nitrogen fixation (BNF), and systems analysis and management.