Pulses

Topic: Major Crops of India: Distribution and Conditions · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 4 "Agriculture"; Class 12, Ch 3 "Land Resources and Agriculture"

Meaning

Pulses are the dry, edible seeds of legumes (plants of the pea and bean family that carry their seeds in pods), such as gram, tur (arhar), urad, moong, masur (lentil) and peas. They are the main source of protein for people who eat a vegetarian diet. Their roots also put nitrogen back into the soil. India is the world's largest producer, consumer and importer of pulses [3]. Even so, Indians eat less than the recommended amount, and farm output still rises and falls with the rain.

Explanation

How pulses fix nitrogen and restore the soil

• Nitrogen fixation means turning nitrogen gas from the air into nitrogen compounds that plants can use.
• How it works:
• Bacteria called Rhizobium live in small lumps on legume roots. These lumps are called root nodules.
• The bacteria take nitrogen from the air in the soil and change it into a form plants can use.

• Some of this nitrogen stays in the soil after harvest. The next crop then needs less fertiliser.

• Crop rotation means growing different crops one after another on the same field. Farmers grow pulses in rotation with cereals such as wheat and rice to bring back soil fertility.

• Trap: The Class 10 NCERT textbook says all pulses except arhar fix nitrogen. This is wrong. Tur (arhar) is also a legume, and it fixes nitrogen too.

Food value

• Pulses are rich in protein.
• They give about 20–25% of the total protein in Indian diets, according to the National Institute of Nutrition [3].
• The recommended intake is 85 grams per person per day. Indians eat less than this, which adds to protein-energy malnutrition (illness caused by too little protein and too few calories) [3].

Conditions and seasons

• Pulses need little moisture and can survive dry spells, so most are grown rainfed (watered only by rain, with no irrigation).
• Kharif crops are sown when the monsoon starts (June–July) and harvested in September–October. Rabi crops are sown in winter (October–November) and harvested in March–April.

Season	Main pulses	Production 2024-25 (lakh tonnes)
Kharif	tur, urad, moong	77.33 [2]
Rabi	gram, masur, peas	152.32 [2]
Summer (third season)	moong, urad	27.18 [2]

• Urad and moong are also sown in the rabi and summer seasons. In 2024-25, summer moong (23.70 lakh tonnes) was larger than kharif moong (17.74 lakh tonnes) [2].

Why yields are low and unsteady

• Pulses get the poorer land:
• Irrigated land goes to wheat and rice.
• Pulses are pushed onto dry, rainfed land.

• So each year's output depends on the monsoon and on winter rain, and yields stay low and swing a lot.

• Example: tur rose from 25.61 lakh tonnes in 2015-16 (a drought year) to 48.73 lakh tonnes in 2016-17, almost double [2].

• Total pulses production [2]:
• 2015-16: 163.23 lakh tonnes
• 2021-22: 273.02 lakh tonnes (the highest in the series)
• 2023-24: 242.46 lakh tonnes

• 2024-25 (Final Estimate, 20 November 2025): 256.83 lakh tonnes

• Production grew from 192.6 lakh tonnes in 2013-14 to 252.38 lakh tonnes in 2024-25 (3rd Advance Estimate), a rise of over 31%. Most of the credit is given to the National Food Security and Nutrition Mission [3].

Where it occurs

• Area: pulses cover about 11% of India's total cropped area (NCERT).
• Main regions: the drylands of the Deccan Plateau, the central plateaus (Malwa, Bundelkhand) and north-west India (Rajasthan).
• Leading states (NCERT): Madhya Pradesh > Rajasthan > Maharashtra > Uttar Pradesh > Karnataka.
• Gram (chickpea, chana), a subtropical rabi pulse:
• It needs only one or two light showers or irrigations in the whole season. Moisture left in the soil after the monsoon, plus a little winter rain, is enough.
• It is grown in central, western and north-western India, on about 2.8% of the total cropped area.
• Madhya Pradesh is the top producer, followed by Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Rajasthan (NCERT).
• After the Green Revolution, irrigated high-yielding wheat pushed gram out of Punjab, Haryana and north Rajasthan, and gram moved to drier land further south.
• Short-duration varieties (ones that ripen in fewer days) have since spread gram into Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka.

• Gram is India's largest pulse: 111.14 of 256.83 lakh tonnes in 2024-25, about 43% [2].

• Tur (arhar, red gram, pigeon pea), a kharif pulse:

• It is a long-duration crop that stays in the field for about 5–8 months. It is often intercropped (grown in the same field alongside jowar, bajra, cotton or soybean).
• It grows on marginal, rainfed land (poor land with thin soil and no irrigation) in the dry central and southern parts of India. Its deep roots help it survive dry spells.
• It covers about 2% of the total cropped area. Maharashtra gives about one-third of the output, followed by Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh (NCERT).

• Output in 2024-25 was 36.24 lakh tonnes, about 14% of total pulses [2].

• Rice fallows (fields left empty in rabi after the kharif rice harvest) are mostly in eastern India: Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal and Assam. They are the main area where pulse farming can expand.

• Trade: India imported 47.38 lakh tonnes of pulses in 2023-24 and exported only 5.94 lakh tonnes [3]. Tur comes mainly from Mozambique (East Africa) and Myanmar.

Don't confuse with

• Tur vs non-legume crops: tur (arhar) is a legume and fixes nitrogen. The NCERT line "all pulses except arhar" is a known error.
• Gram (rabi) vs tur (kharif): gram is a winter crop grown on leftover soil moisture, and Madhya Pradesh is the top producer. Tur is a long monsoon crop, and Maharashtra is the top producer.
• "Second most important pulse": NCERT gives this place to tur. In 2024-25, however, moong (42.44 lakh tonnes) produced more than tur (36.24 lakh tonnes) [2].
• Largest producer vs self-sufficient: India is the largest producer, consumer and importer of pulses [3]. Being the largest producer does not mean it grows enough for itself.

Prelims Hooks

• Kharif pulses: tur, urad, moong. Rabi pulses: gram, masur, peas.
• Share of cropped area: all pulses about 11% > gram about 2.8% > tur about 2% (NCERT).
• Top producers: gram is led by Madhya Pradesh. Tur is led by Maharashtra, which has about one-third of output.
• Gram is India's largest pulse: 111.14 of 256.83 lakh tonnes in 2024-25, about 43% [2].
• Mission for Aatmanirbharta in Pulses (aatmanirbharta means self-reliance):
• It was announced in the Union Budget 2025-26 and launched on 11 October 2025 at IARI, New Delhi.
• It runs from 2025-26 to 2030-31 with ₹11,440 crore and focuses on tur, urad and masoor.

• The target is 350 lakh tonnes by 2030-31 [3].

• Procurement: the government will buy 100% of tur, urad and masoor at MSP (Minimum Support Price, the floor price it promises to pay) for four years. NAFED and NCCF do the buying under PM-AASHA [3].

Mains Points

• Regional pattern and low yields (GS-I):
• The Green Revolution gave irrigated land to wheat and rice and pushed pulses onto the rainfed Deccan, the central plateaus and Rajasthan.
• Gram leaving Punjab, Haryana and north Rajasthan is the clearest example.

• The result is output that swings with the rain. Tur went from 25.61 to 48.73 lakh tonnes between 2015-16 and 2016-17 [2].

• Nutrition and price security (GS-III):

• Pulses give 20–25% of Indian protein, yet intake is below 85 g per person per day [3].
• India still imported 47.38 lakh tonnes in 2023-24 [3].

• Tur is a single kharif crop that depends on the monsoon, so it faces the most price spikes. Imports from Mozambique and Myanmar and buffer stocks are only short-term fixes.

• Policy response and sustainability (GS-III):

• The Mission for Aatmanirbharta in Pulses has four main parts:
  • assured procurement at MSP
  • 88 lakh free seed kits and certified seed tracked on the SATHI portal
  • 1,000 processing and packaging units
  • 35 lakh hectares of new area, mainly on rice fallows [3]
• Its targets for 2030-31 are 310 lakh hectares of area and a yield of 1,130 kg per hectare [3].
• NITI Aayog (report of 4 September 2025) recommended a cluster-based approach (helping groups of nearby villages together) to take pulses into rice fallows [3]. This gives farmers a second crop and puts nitrogen back into soil worn out by rice–wheat farming.

Related concepts

• Gram
• Tur

Read more

• Pulses: gram and tur