Pulses Production in Bihar: An Overview of Constraints and Opportunities

Traditionally pulses have been considered important elements of cropping systems in Bihar, but with the introduction of irrigation and high profitability of alternative sources of soil nutrients in the form of inorganic fertilizers in 1960s, pulses were replaced or relegated to marginal lands and thwere substituted by high- yielding varieties of rice and wheat. Bihar ranks 9in terms of production with a contribution of 0.52 million tons to the national pulse pool but shares only 7.06 per cent of total area under food grains, with productivity ranging between 819 kg/ha in 2000-01 to 897 kg/ha in 2013-14. There has been an incessant decline in pulses area, production and productivity during last three and half decades accounting for about 437.24 thousand hectares, 428.93 thousand tons and 981 kg ha-1 respectively in 2014 - 15 against the corresponding figures of 717.2 thousand hectares, 620.7 thousand tons and 865 kg ha-1 in 2000-01, registering a compound annual decline of -2.5 percent in area and -0.41 percent in production but productivity increased by 2.15 percent per annum. Lentil is only crop which has performed well in Bihar whereas area and production of most of the major pulses have gone down. About 2.2 million ha of rice fallows in Bihar, are most suitable for pulses cultivation. Also there are some indigenous practices like broadcasting pulses like moong, urad, and lathyrus in standing rice crop 7-10 days before harvest making full use of available moisture in the field can be promoted for converting mono-cropped areas into double cropped ones can help increase pulse production. There is also an urgent need to popularize this system by developing varieties suitable for relay cropping and standardization of this agro-technology. The paper examines the current production and productivity scenario along with various factors affecting their performance both biotic and abiotic stresses. It also advocates the various strategies to improve the production and productivity by overcoming these constraints, in the state.