Tur

Subject : Agriculture

Section: Crops

Context:

Known to be rich in proteins, the red gram’s seed coat offers six times more calcium than milk.

Details:

Tur, also called arhar, redgram or pigeonpea is a staple source of protein and rich in calcium too.
A sample of 100-gram tur seed coat has 652 mg of calcium against 120 mg found in 100 ml of milk.
- The human body requires 800-1,000 mg of calcium per day
Presently, the seed coat is discarded in seed processing of the pulse it has huge potential as a key input in baby food and mineral supplements according to the research led by scientists at the ICRISAT’s Gene Bank

Concept:

India is the largest producer, consumer and importer of pulses in the world.
India accounted for 62% of world’s total pulses production in 2019-20.
In the last five-six years, India has increased pulses production from 140 lakh tonnes to more than 240 lakh tonnes.
Though pulses are grown in both Kharif and Rabi seasons, Rabi pulses contribute more than 60 per cent of the total production.
Gram is the most dominant pulse having a share of around 40 per cent in the total production followed by Tur/Arhar at 15 to 20 per cent and Urad/Black Matpe and Moong at around 8-10 per cent each.
Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka are the top five pulses producing States.
Productivity of pulses is 764 kg/ha.
With the advent of the Green Revolution, which promoted rice and wheat using external inputs and modern varieties of seeds, pulses were pushed to the marginal lands. This resulted in decline in productivity and land degradation. Thus, pulses are still cultivated on the marginal and sub marginal land, predominantly under irrigated conditions

Tur:

Tur is largely grown in the semi-arid tropics of South Asia, Central America, and Africa.
India is its biggest producer and consumer globally, accounting for 82 per cent of the cultivation and 77 percent of production.
India grows tur in about 17 lakh hectares annually and produces about 37.50 lakh tonnes. This is followed by Myanmar (6.76 lakh tonnes) and Malawi (4.30 lakh tonnes).

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