Issues Affecting Prospects for Greater Pulse Production; Competition for land
There is acute competition for land during the winter season, a factor that underlies the marked decline in the area devoted to pulses in recent years. Although there is scope for summer pulses there are no appropriate cultivars.
Lack of high-yielding cultivars
A breakthrough in pulses production is possible if HYVs are evolved. These should be economically competitive with the alternative crops grown during the same period. The ability to match and exceed the economic advantage of HYVs of rice and wheat is crucial for taking up a massive pulse-production program.
Suitable technology package
A suitable technology package is yet to be made available to enable higher production with the traditional winter pulses. The results of whatever research has been undertaken in the area have not been packaged or made ready for transmission by extension. Farmers need such packages.
Provision of support services
Expansion of pulses will require the development of adequate seed supply, and sufficient credit for inputs on easy terms. The availability of a low-cost, small irrigation device is an important feature that will contribute to the improvement of unit production.
Subsistence cultivation
Pulses are largely viewed as subsistence crops by most farmers. Changing the status of these crops from subsistence crops to cash crops is one of the major challenges facing the extension workers and planners who aim at substantial increases in pulses production.
Consumption
Consumption of pulses, on a per capita basis, has declined markedly in the last few years. The per capita daily intake has fallen from 11 g in the early 60s to 8 g in the mid 70s to about 6 g now. There is a strong consensus that pulses no longer play a substantive role in the diet of many Bangladeshis and consumption is now restricted mainly to farmers growing these crops and to urban residents.
Extension Strategies on Pulses
The fact that declining pulses production has seriously threatened the protein intake and health of the Bangladesh people has been considered and a scheme called the Crop Diversification Project (CDP) has been launched, primarily for areas known to be prominent in pulses cultivation. This involves the promotion of pulses cultivation through intensive training supports and demonstrations. The project is designed to address the following issues: • Low and uncertain returns from cultivation of traditional pulse varieties; • Subsistence nature of pulses cultivation; • Competition for land from other crops; • Toxic effects of khesari • The declining role of pulses in the diet, and its implication for nutrition; • Lack of H Y V s for winter pulses and non-availability of summer pulses; and • Lack of institutional credit for pulses.
The analysis of the issues and their implications for increasing production has resulted in the identification of three primary themes for the pulses project.
The CDP for pulses aims at strengthening the linkage among the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation, and the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE). The element would involve an augmented and enriched extension program, directed towards client farmers in the selected areas. The national Travel and Visit ( T&V ) system of extension service will operate on this program. There are a number of activities involved in the program implementation. Basic among these are: (i) establishing a strong linkage between CDP research and extension, (ii) organising seminars, (iii) development of audiovisual aids, newsletters, and extension manuals, (iv) development of extension workers on pulse-production technologies, (v) provision of operational supports to extension, (vi) developing and transmitting radio programs, (vii) establishing demonstration plots in the target areas, and (viii) familiarizing target farmers with the latest production technology developed through research.
Irrigation Support
Early or late sowing of pulses as is generally done with uncertain moisture availability, may result in farmers deciding not to cultivate these crops, but a small amount of irrigation will ensure that pulses are sown on time. Therefore, the pulses CDP aims to provide hand tube wells (HTWs) to target farmers in order to increase higher input practices in pulses cultivation.
Production
The pulses CDP projects an additional production of 132 000 t by 1995. The current production of pulses allows for a per capita daily consumption of pulses of about 6 g. This is only a fraction of the requirement, in contrast to 45 g in India. A projection of the production requirement based on the estimated per capita daily consumption is shown in Table 4 (in the year 2000, based on a population of 141 million). The production target of 400 000 t of pulses will allow only a marginal increase in per capita daily consumption of pulses in Bangladesh to perhaps 7 g a day, by the end of the century