Importance of under-utilized indigenous legumes in Asia-pacific region

Gowda, C L L and Upadhyaya, H D and Ghaffar, M A (2007) Importance of under-utilized indigenous legumes in Asia-pacific region. In: Proceedings of the Ist international conference on indigenous vegetables and legumes prospectus for fighting poverty, hunger and malnutrition, 12-15 December 2006, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India.

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Abstract

Food legumes constitute a major crop group in the Asia-Pacific region because of their unique features including their role in human and animal nutrition, nitrogen fixation, adaptation to stress conditions, suitability to various cropping systems, and for overall sustainability of agricultural production systems. Most countries in the region have attained self-sufficiency in staple cereal crops production. However, the availability of legumes is low, and many countries are importing legumes costing huge amounts in foreign exchange. Dependence on a few legumes in production and market chain, and high demand has lead to increased price for legumes, and thus the poor rural and urban families cannot afford to eat legumes to the desired level (to meet protein needs). Only a handful of legumes are grown on large areas and enter commercial markets. There are many indigenous food legumes whose potential is under exploited and untapped. Many of these indigenous food legumes play a vital role in protein nutrition to poor farm families, especially to women and children, in the region. Looking at the total area cultivated and production, legumes such as soybean, groundnut, chickpea, lentil, common bean, field peas, chickpea, and pigeonpea can be considered as major legume crops. Other legumes that are indigenous and under-exploited are: Adzuki bean, bambara groundnut, blackgram, broadbean (faba bean), horsegram, lablab bean, lathyrus, moth bean, rice bean, and winged bean. Not all of them are indigenous (in the sense of origin), but have been cultivated in the region for more than 200-300 years. Hence, all these are considered indigenous for the purpose of this paper and their potential for expanding the food basket and commercialization in Asia-Pacific region is discussed.

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Divisions: UNSPECIFIED
CRP: UNSPECIFIED
Subjects: Mandate crops > Chickpea
Mandate crops > Pigeonpea
Depositing User: Users 6 not found.
Date Deposited: 17 Oct 2011 08:56
Last Modified: 29 Aug 2013 09:32
URI: http://oar.icrisat.org/id/eprint/2700
Acknowledgement: UNSPECIFIED
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