It’s time to banish fears around ‘Khesari Dal’ and relish the nutritious legume

Subject :Geography

Section: Eco geography

About Khesari Dal or Grass Pea (Lathyrus sativus):

The legume (Lathyrus sativus) is also known as khesari dal in Hindi, lang in Marathi and laag in Gujarati.
It is also known as cicerchia, blue sweet pea, chickling pea, chickling vetch, Indian pea, white pea and white vetch.
It resembles toor dal (pigeon pea).
It is commonly grown for human consumption and livestock feed in Asia and East Africa.
It is one of the cheapest legumes and grows easily in fallow fields, can be rotated with any crop and needs little to no investment.
It is also tolerant to drought, salinity and water logging and resistant to pests and biotic stress.
In terms of nutrition, grass pea has high levels of proteins, second only to soybean, and even has the compound L-homoarginine that is beneficial to heart health.

Why was it banned in India:

It has been infamous for causing lathyrism, an irreversible neurological disease that leads to paralysis of lower limbs.
Researchers identified the culprit as a chemical in the seed, ß-N-oxalyl-L-a, ß-diaminopropionic acid (ß-ODAP).
In 1961, India banned the sale and storage of grass peas under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, of 1954.
The ban was followed by all states except Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal.
However, the government did not ban cultivation as farmers said it was used as animal feed.

New varieties:

FSSAI allowed incidental presence (2%) in other grains in 2021.
In 1966, the first variety with low ß-ODAP, Pusa 24, was released for cultivation.
In 1995, the government launched an All India Coordinated Research Project on MULLaRP (Mungbean, Urd-bean, Lentil, Lathyrus, Rajmash and Pea), under which the crops are promoted and high-yielding varieties are developed.