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Preface
Agriculture has been and will always remain the most important sector of national and global economy. It provides the ultimate essential food for the world’s population. Thus, the long term survival of mankind will depend on the sustainability of the global agricultural economy. Now, throughout the world, agriculture is faced with an immense challenge: how to increase yield to feed a growing population from depleted natural resources such as soil, water and biodiversity etc. in the present face of climate change. But, India is the major producer and consumer of agriculture and allied food products in South Asian countries and possesses huge potential that remains highly under realized. Therefore, the country has to play a major role not only to maintain self sufficiency in food production but also to meet the additional requirement of its neighbouring countries.
Unlike cereals and other crops, pulses production in India is characterised by diversity of crops and their regional specificity based on adaptation to prevailing agro-climatic conditions. At present 87 per cent of the area under pulses is confined to rainfed ecosystem and in future the bulk of pulse production will continue to come from unirrigated areas. The present production of pulses hovers 17-18 million tonnes, which falls short of the present domestic requirement of about 20 million tonnes. In order to ensure self sufficiency, the pulse requirement in the country is projected 50 million tonnes by the year 2050 which necessitates an annual growth rate of 4.2 per cent. This requires a paradigm shift in research, technology generation and dissemination and commercialisation along with capacity building of all stake holders in frontier areas of pulse program in the country.
The author is extremely thankful to Dr.V.P Singh, Senior Policy Advisor, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), South-Asia, New Delhi; Dr. S. Ayyappan, former Secretary (DARE) and Director General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi; Prof. T. Mohapatra, Secretary (DARE) and Director General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi; Prof. M. S. Swaminathan, Founding Director, MSSRF, Chennai; Dr. N. P. Singh, Director, ICAR, Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Kanpur, Dr. William. D. Dar, Director General, ICRISAT, Hyderabad, India; Sri. R. S. Gopalan, I.A.S, former Director of Agriculture and Food Production, Odisha and Prof. D. P. Ray, Chief Advisor, Sikha ‘O’Anusandhan University and former Vice-Chancellor, Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar. The author is also extremely thankful to Prof. Manoranjan Nayak, President, Sikha ‘O’ Anusandhan University, Bhubaneswar for his support and moral encouragement to abridge the text into book form. I acknowledge Prof. A.K.Sahoo for his constant scientific inputs and critical assessment, for developing such kind of publication. Further, the author also strongly acknowledges contributors of all chapters for their intellectual stimulations and valuable inputs. Finally, the author acknowledges the publisher, New India Publishing Agency, New Delhi for bringing out this edition.
Preface
Agriculture has been and will always remain the most important sector of national and global economy. It provides the ultimate essential food for the world’s population. Thus, the long term survival of mankind will depend on the sustainability of the global agricultural economy. Now, throughout the world, agriculture is faced with an immense challenge: how to increase yield to feed a growing population from depleted natural resources such as soil, water and biodiversity etc. in the present face of climate change. But, India is the major producer and consumer of agriculture and allied food products in South Asian countries and possesses huge potential that remains highly under realized. Therefore, the country has to play a major role not only to maintain self sufficiency in food production but also to meet the additional requirement of its neighbouring countries.
Unlike cereals and other crops, pulses production in India is characterised by diversity of crops and their regional specificity based on adaptation to prevailing agro-climatic conditions. At present 87 per cent of the area under pulses is confined to rainfed ecosystem and in future the bulk of pulse production will continue to come from unirrigated areas. The present production of pulses hovers 17-18 million tonnes, which falls short of the present domestic requirement of about 20 million tonnes. In order to ensure self sufficiency, the pulse requirement in the country is projected 50 million tonnes by the year 2050 which necessitates an annual growth rate of 4.2 per cent. This requires a paradigm shift in research, technology generation and dissemination and commercialisation along with capacity building of all stake holders in frontier areas of pulse program in the country.
The author is extremely thankful to Dr.V.P Singh, Senior Policy Advisor, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), South-Asia, New Delhi; Dr. S. Ayyappan, former Secretary (DARE) and Director General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi; Prof. T. Mohapatra, Secretary (DARE) and Director General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi; Prof. M. S. Swaminathan, Founding Director, MSSRF, Chennai; Dr. N. P. Singh, Director, ICAR, Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Kanpur, Dr. William. D. Dar, Director General, ICRISAT, Hyderabad, India; Sri. R. S. Gopalan, I.A.S, former Director of Agriculture and Food Production, Odisha and Prof. D. P. Ray, Chief Advisor, Sikha ‘O’Anusandhan University and former Vice-Chancellor, Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar. The author is also extremely thankful to Prof. Manoranjan Nayak, President, Sikha ‘O’ Anusandhan University, Bhubaneswar for his support and moral encouragement to abridge the text into book form. I acknowledge Prof. A.K.Sahoo for his constant scientific inputs and critical assessment, for developing such kind of publication. Further, the author also strongly acknowledges contributors of all chapters for their intellectual stimulations and valuable inputs. Finally, the author acknowledges the publisher, New India Publishing Agency, New Delhi for bringing out this edition.