Production, Trade and Consumption of Pulses

The Global Economy of Pulses edited by Vikas Rawal and Dorian Kalamvrezos Navarro, Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2019; pp xi + 174, price not indicated.

There appears to be a widely prevalent impression, particularly among the developed countries, that there are people and nations who do not know the “incredible properties” of pulses, and believe “that their nutritional value is generally not recognised and their consumption is frequently under-appreciated” (FAO 2016). Such a situation may be largely because pulses in farming and food are essentially a third world phenomenon. Almost 90% of the area under pulses and about 80% of output of pulses are in developing countries, and among them sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where the world’s most of the poor and undernourished live, and for whom pulses are a critical source of protein, together account for about two-thirds of the area, and one-half of output of world’s pulses (Joshi and Rao 2016).

Pulse protein is a relatively large share of overall consumption in low-income countries, ranging from 10–35% in Africa. The country with the greatest pulse consumption is India. Protein from pulses represents 12.7% of total protein in the Indian diet. (Mc Dermott and Wyatt 2017)