What will it take for India, with a burgeoning population of well over a billion, to meet its food needs in the coming years?

Chapter 4 looks at the technology, with special importance given the stagnation in pulses’ yield as compared with that of other crops.

During the past decade, because of the persistent deficit in India’s pulse sector, the sharp rise in pulse prices has coincided with significant changes in the nature and extent of the pulse trade.

In this chapter we study the dynamics of consumption of pulses and assess pulses’ nutritional role with a focus on proteins.

Chapter 7 reviews the role of convergent innovation for the development of the pulses sector and discusses an evolving framework focused on the significant health and environmental benefits that could accrue from pulses.

The remainder of this chapter presents some facts that form the background motivation for this book: the production and consumption patterns of India’s pulse sector, the global context of trade in pulses and the position of India therein, the nutr

In this chapter, we analyze the pulse processing sector’s growth and the relative roles of the organized and the unorganized sectors of the industry.

India, a country with high concentrations of poor and malnourished people, long promoted a cereal-centric diet composed of subsidized staple commodities such as rice and wheat to feed its population of more than a billion.

Chapter 3 gives a detailed description of pulse production dynamics across regions and over time.

Chapter 8 concludes, drawing lessons from the studies in the preceding chapters to provide policy suggestions for the way forward.