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Abstract
In India, annual production of pulses ranges from 11 Mt to 15 Mt, with yield of about 600 kg/ha. Due to the
wide gap between supply and demand, import of pulses has increased from 0.38 Mt in 1993 to 2.82 Mt in
2008. Lentil is an important rabi pulse crop with a production of 0.85-0.95 Mt in India, after gram. The study
has used both secondary and primary data collected from on-farm demonstrations and farmers’ fields to
examine the ways to enhance the domestic supply of lentil. The study has found that there is a scope of
increasing area under lentil during the rabi season, as its cost per hectare is less with higher net returns
than the competing crops like wheat, gram and mustard in water-deficit and resource-poor conditions.
There are large returns for adoption of disease management (80 per cent increase in net return), and
improved small-seeded varieties (about 40 per cent increase in net return) in lentil. The study has found
that lentil-based cropping systems are profitable and also have high water productivity, hence are suitable
for mostly un-exploited rice-fallows under water-deficit conditions. Even though marketed surplus ratios
have increased in recent years, there is a post-harvest loss to the extent of 7 per cent of production which
needs to be curtailed to increase overall supply for final consumption. There is a case for larger institutional
and policy support for pulse crops, keeping visible effects of pulse crops in increasing yield of subsequent
crops in crop rotations.