Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition

FAO

 

FSN Forum

 

DISCUSSION No. 133   •   FSN Forum digest No. 1271

Pulses: innovations from the field to the cooking pot

until 4 November 2016

 

iconHow to participate

Send your contribution to
[log in to unmask]

or post it on the
FSN Forum website www.fao.org/fsnforum

© FAO

Dear Members,

Please find below an update on our discussion Pulses: innovations from the field to the cooking pot.

Our two facilitators, Karen Cichy and Sieg Snapp, provide feedback on the discussion so far; comments have been received on experiences with product innovation and on how to make pulses more attractive, both for consumers and producers.

We join Karen and Sieg in encouraging you to keep sharing ideas on innovations to increase consumption, information about pulse breeding and agronomy efforts that helped in expanding production, and on how to improve accuracy of pulses statistics.

Please visit the webpage for any further information and take advantage of these last few days to post your contributions to the online discussion in English, French or Spanish.

Your FSN Forum team

 

 

Karen Cichy, co-facilitatator of the discussion

Thank you everyone for great discussion and insightful comments. 

I would like to follow up on some of the issues raised in regards to pulse consumption levels.  Since pulses are rich in nutrients and an eco-friendly source of dietary protein, we would expect them to be utilized to a greater extent. I agree with the point made by Sarah Najera that pulses need to modernize in order for consumers to adopt them, especially in regions where they are not a dietary staple. 

Anna Antwi

I would like to hear thoughts from others on how to approach this.  In some cases updating the packaging and highlighting the nutrition label may go a long way. 

Adding pulses to new products also has the potential to increase consumption, especially if care is taken in regards to taste, convenience, and nutritional value of the products.  Also, what about creating excitement around traditional recipes by reintroducing them in an updated way?  I also would like to ask people’s opinions on what approaches should be used to increase consumption in places where pulses are a dietary staple but people are moving away from them for various reasons.   

 

Sieg Snapp, co-facilitatator of the discussion

It is very encouraging reading the detailed commentary and action plans outlined here for promoting pulses. From Zimbabwe, Australia and Norway there is clearly tremendous commitment to how we can support greater investment in agricultural education and policies that support growing pulses, and in nutrition education to enhance the demand for pulses.

I am interested in any experiences from members of this forum in terms of working with ministries of education, or ministries of nutrition and health, as novel means to support awareness of pulses, nutritional benefits and understanding of the wide range of environmental services that pulses provided.

Anna Antwi

As an agriculturist I am very interested to see ideas about expanding the range of pulse varieties so that farmers and consumers have more options. I have worked with some plant breeders who have been committed to releasing many different types of varieties that meet both local and market preferences for taste and other seed traits. This has been my experience based in work with bean breeders, I have seen much less investment by public research institutions in other pulse breeders, such as pigeonpea breeding as only a few varieties have been released for African smallholder farmers.  Beside bean breeding, which has included participatory approaches, molecular tools and long-term, sustained efforts on seed systems, is there other examples of pulse breeding efforts and agronomy that has expanded pulse production options, and supported widespread adoption? I would really like to see such examples highlighted.

Another area that requires more attention is agricultural statistics which are rather poor for pulses, including aggregated combinations of different bean species and inaccurate reflection of what is grown on the ground in many countries. How might we support greater attention to documenting legume species and varieties, and consumption, so that we know that agricultural statistics accurately reflect what pulses are grown, and where. 

I am interested to hear of others experiences with legume statistics or documentation of impact from adoption of growing or eating more pulses.

 

CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED

iconLal Manavado, University of Oslo affiliate, Norway

Lal outlines a possible framework of action aimed at increasing the production and consumption of pulses. The framework includes policy options in different sectors: agriculture, trade, education, health, and finance. Any policy option should then be tailored to the actual conditions at country or regional level.

Read the contribution

iconKadambot Siddique, The University of Western Australia and UN FAO Special Ambassador for the International Year of Pulses

Kadambot highlights the health benefits of pulses and the need for promoting their consumption to address malnutrition and several non-communicable diseases. He also calls for urgent investment in research, development and extension to enhance pulse production, improve value chains, strenghten nutritional properties and stimulate consumption.

Read the contribution

iconSaid Zarouali, Haut Commissariat au Plan, Morocco

Said observes that in North Africa the consumption of pulses is limited as people prefer to eat cereals. However, the demographic changes that the region is facing require to focus attention on pulses and to innovate the way pulses are produced and presented, targeting children and the elderly.

Read the contribution

iconBrenda Iliana Gallegos López, Universidad de El Salvador

In El Salvador red "silk" beans are a staple food and an essential element of the daily diet. At the same time they have recently been produced and marketed as snacks.

Read the contribution

 

 

www.fao.org/fsnforum

CONTACT US  •  DISCLAIMER

 



To unsubscribe from the FSNFORUM-L list, click the following link:
https://listserv.fao.org/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=FSNFORUM-L&A=1