Pulses

The other name that is given to Pulses is grain legume that includes crop from one to twelve different seeds that are available in different sizes, colors and shapes. The pulses varieties include dry beans, dry peas, lentils and few other varieties.

Pulses are an important source of food since they are rich in protein and essential amino acid required by human body. The cultivation of pulses also plays a key role since they help in fixing nitrogen by practicing the method of crop rotation. To spread the importance of Pulses, United Nations has declared the year 2016 as the International Year for Pulses.

The small word Pulses can be referred to either a small seed or at times, it is also referred as a name for full plant.

History

It has been researched that the Pulses were grown as back as 3330 BC and its evidence could be found near the Ravi River that is part on Indus Valley civilization. The other locations where the evidence of lentils has been found are near the Egyptian Pyramids where the evidence of cultivation of dry pea seeds was seen near the Swiss village that belonged to the era of Stone Age. As per the Archaeological surveys, it was seen that peas were majorly cultivated in the areas of Mediterranean and Mesopotamia some 5000 years back whereas its evidence in Britain was found during the 11th century.

Pulses Consumption

The country that has been recoded as the major consumer of Pulses is India whereas countries in the specified order are the major exporters of Pulses: Pakistan, Canada, Burma, Australia and United States. As per the current records, Canada is ranked to supply 35 percent of the pulses every year. The total production of Pulses all over the world is recoded to be 60 million tones.

Classification of Pulses

1. Dry beans pulses include kidney beans, Lima Beans, Mung Beans, Scarlet runner beams, Moth Bean, Azuki Bean, Black gram, Rice bean and Tepary Bean.
2. Dry Broad Beans pulses include Horse beans, Broad Beans and Field Bean.
3. Dry Peas pulses include Garden Pea and Protein Pea.
4. Bengal Gram, Garbanzo and Chickpea, Black-eye Bean, Dry Cowpea, Black-eyed Pea, Pigeon Pea, Toor Dal, Cajun Pea, Congo Bean, gandules, Lentil, Earth Pea, Bambara Groundnut, Common Vetch, Vetch and Lupins are other varieties of Pulses.
5. Few of the Minor Pulses consists of Lablab, Jack Bean, Hyacinth Bean, Sword Bean, Velvet Bean, Winged Bean, cowitch and Yam bean.

Nutrition in Pulses

Consuming Pulses provides proteins, carbohydrates, various types of vitamins and minerals. The pulses like any other plant food do not contain cholesterol and have very little or no fat or sodium. The other components that are beneficial that are provided by the Pulses are Iron, Phosphorus, iron, phosphorus and many other rich mineral needed by the human body.

Benefits of Pulses

1. Pulses provide proteins which is a necessary nutrient required by humans, especially needed by the vegetarians.
2. It is ranked next to cereals as a major ingredient in the Indian meal.
3. Pulses are easy grains since they can be grown on any kind of soil and in any kind of climatic conditions.
4. They also help in balancing the nitrogen of the soil with the practice of crop rotation, mixed cropping and thus increase the fertility in the soil.
5. The other benefits of cultivating pulses are improvising organic values of the soil by leaf mould.
6. Cultivation of Pulses require very less manuring.
7. They are also beneficial in keeping a check on the soil erosion because Pulses are generally leafy and are cultivated very closely with less spacing.
8. Pulses also supply fodder for the cattles.
9. Few of the Pulses form the green manure crops.
10. The cultivation of Pulses is for very short duration so that the cultivation of next crop can be done and hence, a small piece of land is used for maximum cultivation of Pulses.

Health Benefits of Pulses

1. Diabetes: Including lentils, peas and beans in the daily diet helps in managing the blood sugar level in the body since they contain lower glycemic indexes.
2. Weight Management: Including pulses in the diet can help in the weight management for those who are trying to lose weight.

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