[FAO]
[FSN Forum]
DISCUSSION No. 128 • FSN Forum digest No. 1238
Pulses are praised for their health, environmental and economic benefits. How can their full potential be tapped?
until 19 June 2016
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Dear Members,
We received many insightful comments from you over the past few days exploring the benefits of pulses<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/activities/discussions/pulses> (legumes harvested solely for the dry grain such as beans, chickpeas and lentils, etc.)<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/activities/discussions/pulses> and proposing ways to support their production and consumption across the world.
Below you can also read the feedback to some of the questions raised during the webinar and the discussion, posted by Teodardo Calles and Fernanda Grande, our technical experts on pulses.
We are approaching the closure of this lively discussion and encourage you to keep sharing your knowledge, which will contribute to enriching and raising awareness on pulses.
On the discussion page<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/activities/discussions/pulses> you will find all comments received, which are welcome in all UN languages.
Best regards
Your FSN Forum team
Teodardo Calles, FAO, Italy
Dear Participants,
The first online discussion of the International year of Pulses (IYP) is coming to an end. As I said before, I am very happy for all interesting contributions made by the participants. We will present a summary of this discussion to the IYP Steering Committee and I am sure that your comments will help us improve the second half of the IYP.
[Fernanda Grande]
If you know or you are organizing an event on pulses, you can contact me and we can include information about the event in the website of the IYP ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>). Since we will probably need some additional information about some of the topics discussed here, I will contact you through email personally.
We will have another online discussion between October and November and we hope you can contribute with again.
Teodardo Calles
Fernanda Grande, FAO, Italy
I would like to provide my answers to two questions posed during the webinar "Pulses for Food Security and Nutrition<http://bit.ly/1U7sEuS>" and that we could not answer due to lack of time.
Question posed by Mohamed:
[Fernanda Grande]
What are the specific advantages of pulses for small children?
Pulses represent a good source of plant-based protein, B vitamins and minerals which are important nutrients for growth. A common problem regarding complementary feeding, especially in some developing countries, is that young children are fed thin, watery cereal-based porridges that cannot supply them with the energy and nutrients they need for growth. Therefore pulses are a good choice to include in complementary feeding as part of a diversified diet.
Question posed by Mona Dhamankar:
Is it true that one needs to eat large quantities of pulses in order to meet the recommended daily allowance of protein? as compared to animal protein?
Yes, it is true. Protein content of meat, for example, is double the content of cooked beans. So to have the same amount of protein, a person needs to eat a larger portion of pulses. Moreover, it is also important to remember that in order to increase the protein quality of meals we can consume pulses with cereals to have a “complete” amino acid profile.
The recording to the full webinar is also online and available at this link: http://bit.ly/1U7sEuS
CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED
[icon]Germain Grégoire Eloundou Tsanga, CECOSDA, Cameroon
Germain shares his experience in Cameroun, where CECOSDA carried out a survey of the most common pulses produced and consumed in the country and contributes the recipe for Koki, a traditional and well known dish based on white beans.
Read the comment<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/comment/7121>
[icon]Fouad Maalouf, ICARDA, Lebanon
Fouad's contribution looks into the situation of pulses in countries such as Egypt and Sudan, where due to policies subsidizing cereals crops, farmers tend to go for mono-cropping, despite pulses being important crops in the culinary tradition.
Read the contribution<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/comment/7124>
[icon]Pradip Dey, Indian Institute of Soil Science, India
Pradip acknowledges the role of pulses for protein security and soil revitalisation and outlines seven areas of work to improve pulse production
Read the contribution<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/comment/7125>
[icon]Kien Nguyen Van, Plant Resources Center (PRC), Viet Nam
Kien supports the many valuable assets of pulses and calls for a stronger support for developing countries in realizing the full potential of pulses' production and consumption.
Read the contribution<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/comment/7126>
[icon]Manoj Kumar Behera, NRMC India, India
Manoj highlights that the production of pulses has been neglected over the years in favour of cereals based systems, with the result that poor people pay a double price for commonly consumed pulses. More funds should be dedicated to research and extension on pulses based farming systems.
Read the contribution<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/comment/7132>
[icon]Hagos Mohammedseid Juhar, Mekelle University, Ethiopia
In Ethiopia, Hagos says, pulses are a very important part of the food system. A common local dish is "Shiro wet", which is prepared using bean powder.
Read the contribution<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/comment/7133>
[icon]David Bergvinson, Director General of Icrisat, India
David presents ICRISAT's research on pulses and elaborates on the many positive aspects of pulses consumption and production, sharing relevant references and documents. ICRISAT's research focuses on: a) improved grain quality, nutritional traits, food safety, nitrogen fixing properties and hybrids; b) drought tolerance and adaptation to diverse dryland agroecosystems and to differing rotations with cereal crops.
Read the contribution<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/comment/7134>
[icon]Manuel Moya, International Pediatric Association, Spain
Manuel explores the nutritional advantages of pulses, especially for children and calls for greater effort on promoting their production and consumption.
Read the contribution<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/comment/7137>
[icon]Ilse de Jager, Wageningen University, Netherlands
Ilse shares an abstract from her PhD research, carried out in the context of the N2Africa project (www.n2africa.org<http://www.n2africa.org/>) which explores infants and young child's potential nutritional benefits of enhanced grain legume production.
Read the contribution<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/comment/7139>
[icon]Massimo Iannetta, ENEA, Italy
The main challenges faced by Italian farmers with regard to the production of pulses is posed by the low income that they achieve from leguminous crops; therefore many farmers are reluctant to include these crops in the rotations of their farms.
Read the contribution<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/comment/7144>
[icon]Esther Ronner, Wageningen University, Netherlands
Esther presents the potential that climbing beans offer to intensify bean production compared to bush beans, in particular for the densely populated highlands of East Africa. She is involved in a project developing options for the design, implementation and evaluation of climbing bean technologies.
Read the contribution<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/comment/7147>
[icon]Dhanya Praveen, Environment Protection Training and Research Institute, India
Dhanya shares the challenges in convincing farmer communities to adopt drought resistant crops, such as pulses, in the context of climate change risks and shares some related links.
Read the contribution<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/comment/7148>
[icon]Rattan Lal, Ohio State University, USA
Rattan's contribution presents some key features of pulses and in particular their linkages to soil health, to adaptation and mitigation of climate change and to food security and nutrition.
Read the contribution<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/comment/7149>
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