Pulses: gram and tur

Detail

What pulses are

• Pulses are the dry, edible seeds of legumes. Legumes are plants of the pea and bean family that carry their seeds in pods. Common pulses are gram, tur (arhar), urad, moong, masur (lentil) and peas.
• Pulses are rich in protein. They are the main source of protein for people who eat a vegetarian diet.
• Pulses give about 20–25% of the total protein in Indian diets, as per the National Institute of Nutrition [3].
• The recommended intake is 85 grams per person per day. Indians still eat less than this, and that adds to protein-energy malnutrition (illness caused by too little protein and too few calories) [3].

Nitrogen fixation and crop rotation

• Nitrogen fixation means turning nitrogen gas from the air into nitrogen compounds that plants can use.
• How legumes fix nitrogen:
• Bacteria called Rhizobium live in small lumps (root nodules) on the roots of legumes.
• These 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 soil becomes more fertile, so the next crop 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 textbook says that all pulses except arhar fix nitrogen. This is wrong. Tur (arhar) is also a legume, and it also fixes nitrogen. Do not mark tur as a non-legume.

Climate and season

• Pulses need little moisture. They can survive dry conditions, so most are grown rainfed (watered only by rain, not by 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	Pulses	Production 2024-25 (lakh tonnes)
Kharif	tur, urad, moong	Total kharif pulses: 77.33 [2]
Rabi	gram, masur, peas	Total rabi pulses: 152.32 [2]
Summer	moong, urad (third season)	Total summer pulses: 27.18 [2]

• Note that 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].

Area, distribution and yield

• Pulses cover about 11% of India's total cropped area (NCERT).
• Most pulses grow in drylands: the Deccan Plateau, the central plateaus (Malwa, Bundelkhand) and north-west India (Rajasthan).
• Why yields are low and change from year to year:
• Pulses are grown on poorer, rainfed land, because the irrigated land goes to wheat and rice.
• Each year's output therefore depends on the monsoon and on winter rain.

• Yields stay low and swing a lot between years.

• Leading states (NCERT): Madhya Pradesh > Rajasthan > Maharashtra > Uttar Pradesh > Karnataka.

Production and trade today

• India is the world's largest producer, consumer and importer of pulses [3]. (NCERT: largest producer and consumer.)
• 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].

• Imports are still large. India imported 47.38 lakh tonnes of pulses in 2023-24 and exported only 5.94 lakh tonnes [3].
• Beyond NCERT: India imports tur mainly from Mozambique (East Africa) and Myanmar. The government also keeps a buffer stock of pulses (a reserve it buys and holds) and releases it to bring prices down.

Gram (chickpea)

• Gram (chickpea, chana) is a subtropical rabi pulse. It is mostly rainfed.
• Conditions: It needs only one or two light showers or irrigations in the whole season. Leftover soil moisture after the monsoon, plus a little winter rain, is enough.
• Region: central, western and north-western India.
• How the Green Revolution pushed gram out:
• Irrigation and high-yielding wheat seeds spread across Punjab, Haryana and north Rajasthan after the mid-1960s.
• Wheat earned more and had an assured price, so farmers swapped their gram fields for wheat.

• Gram was pushed out of Punjab, Haryana and north Rajasthan and moved to drier land further south.

• Area: about 2.8% of the total cropped area (NCERT).

• Leading states: Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Rajasthan. Madhya Pradesh is the top producer (NCERT).
• Yields are low and change from year to year, even on irrigated land.
• Production [2]:
• 2015-16: 70.58 lakh tonnes
• 2021-22: 135.44 lakh tonnes (the peak)
• 2023-24: 110.39 lakh tonnes

• 2024-25: 111.14 lakh tonnes

• Gram is India's largest pulse. It gave about 43% of total pulses output in 2024-25 (111.14 of 256.83 lakh tonnes) [2].

• Beyond NCERT: gram has moved south. Short-duration varieties (ones that ripen in fewer days) now fit the short, warm winters of the south. So gram has spread into Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka.

Tur (arhar, red gram, pigeon pea)

• Tur is a kharif pulse. It is called arhar in Hindi, red gram in the south and pigeon pea in English. It is a long-duration crop that stays in the field for about 5–8 months, and it is often intercropped (grown in the same field alongside another crop such as jowar, bajra, cotton or soybean).
• Importance: NCERT calls it the second most important pulse. In 2024-25, however, moong (42.44 lakh tonnes) was ahead of tur (36.24 lakh tonnes) [2].
• Conditions: 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.
• Area: about 2% of the total cropped area (NCERT).
• Leading states: Maharashtra gives about one-third of the output, followed by Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh (NCERT).
• Yields are very low and inconsistent.
• Production swings sharply [2]:
• 2015-16: 25.61 lakh tonnes (a drought year)
• 2016-17: 48.73 lakh tonnes (almost double)
• 2022-23: 33.12 lakh tonnes

• 2024-25: 36.24 lakh tonnes, about 14% of total pulses

• Why tur prices spike so often:

• Tur is a single kharif crop that depends fully on the monsoon.
• A weak monsoon cuts output sharply, and demand for tur dal stays the same.
• Prices jump, and the government falls back on imports (Mozambique, Myanmar) and buffer stocks.

Policy: Mission for Aatmanirbharta in Pulses

• Aatmanirbharta means self-reliance. The mission was announced in the Union Budget 2025-26, approved by the Cabinet on 1 October 2025 and launched on 11 October 2025 at IARI, New Delhi [3].
• Period and money: six years, 2025-26 to 2030-31, with an outlay of ₹11,440 crore [3].
• Focus crops: tur (arhar), urad and masoor [3].
• Targets for 2030-31 [3]:
• production of 350 lakh tonnes
• area of 310 lakh hectares (35 lakh hectares more, mainly on rice fallows)

• yield of 1,130 kg per hectare

• Procurement: 100% procurement of tur, urad and masoor at MSP (Minimum Support Price: the floor price the government promises to pay) for four years. NAFED and NCCF will do the buying under PM-AASHA (Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay SanraksHan Abhiyan, launched in 2018 to give farmers of pulses, oilseeds and copra an assured price) [3].

• Seeds: 88 lakh free seed kits and 126 lakh quintals of certified seed. Seeds are tracked on the SATHI portal (Seed Authentication, Traceability & Holistic Inventory) [3].
• Processing: 1,000 processing and packaging units, each with a subsidy of up to ₹25 lakh [3].
• About 2 crore farmers are expected to benefit. The stated aim is full self-reliance in pulses by December 2027 [3].

Rice fallows: room to grow

• Rice fallows are fields that lie empty in the rabi season after the kharif rice harvest. Most are in eastern India: Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal and Assam.
• How the idea works:
• Some moisture stays in the soil after the rice harvest.
• Short-duration pulses (lentil, gram, urad, moong) can grow on this leftover moisture without irrigation.

• The farmer gets a second crop, and the legume adds nitrogen to the soil.

• NITI Aayog (report of 4 September 2025, based on a survey of 885 farmers in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka) recommended taking pulses into rice fallows through a cluster-based approach (helping groups of nearby villages together) [3].

Prelims Hooks

• Tur (arhar) is a legume and fixes nitrogen. Treat the NCERT line "all pulses except arhar fix nitrogen" as a trap.
• Kharif pulses: tur, urad, moong. Rabi pulses: gram, masur, peas.
• Gram is India's largest pulse: 111.14 of 256.83 lakh tonnes in 2024-25, about 43% [2].
• Gram: top producer is Madhya Pradesh. Tur: top producer is Maharashtra, with about one-third of output.
• After the Green Revolution, wheat pushed gram out of Punjab, Haryana and north Rajasthan.
• Share of cropped area: all pulses about 11% > gram about 2.8% > tur about 2%.
• In 2024-25, moong (42.44 lakh tonnes) produced more than tur (36.24 lakh tonnes) [2].
• India is the world's largest producer, consumer and importer of pulses. It imported 47.38 lakh tonnes in 2023-24 [3].
• Mission for Aatmanirbharta in Pulses: 2025-26 to 2030-31, ₹11,440 crore, focused on tur, urad and masoor, with a target of 350 lakh tonnes by 2030-31 [3].
• Assured procurement at MSP under PM-AASHA is carried out by NAFED and NCCF [3].

Mains Points

• Why pulse yields stay low (GS-I, distribution):
• Pulses are pushed onto the rainfed drylands of the Deccan, the central plateaus and Rajasthan, because irrigated land goes to wheat and rice.
• Gram's move out of Punjab, Haryana and north Rajasthan after the Green Revolution 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].

• Food and nutrition 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, a single kharif crop that depends on the monsoon, is the most exposed to price spikes. Imports from Mozambique and Myanmar and buffer stocks are only short-term fixes.

• Policy response (GS-III):

• The Mission for Aatmanirbharta in Pulses has four main parts: assured MSP procurement, certified seed traced on SATHI, processing units, and 35 lakh hectares of new area [3].

• Its success depends on raising yields to 1,130 kg per hectare and on keeping procurement going after the four-year guarantee ends.

• Sustainability and diversification:

• Legumes fix nitrogen and so cut the need for fertiliser.
• Growing pulses on eastern rice fallows and in rotation with cereals can repair soil worn out by rice–wheat farming and raise farm income [3].