Abstract
The Global Economy of Pulses, edited by Vikas Rawal and Dorian Kalamvrezos Navarro provides a comprehensive analysis of the dynamics of production and consumption of major pulses in major pulse-producing countries of the world. The book highlights the importance of bridging the demand and supply gaps by addressing the issues of poor yields and returns to smallholder farmers. The book contributes to the growing literature on food and nutritional security by providing insights on the importance of pulses in contributing to the nutritional and health benefits of the world’s poor and undernourished and on important gaps in disseminating the nutritional information to people. The study evaluates major economic, historical, and socio-cultural factors that affect the demand for consumption of pulses. In similar lines, the study also evaluates the factors that constrain or facilitate growth in production of pulses. Since these factors can vary, not only from region to region but also from crop to crop, a region- and crop-specific analysis is essential in contributing to developing an appropriate government policy intervention. This book, therefore, makes an attempt to analyse the region-specific as well as crop-specific issues. The book through its comprehensive coverage and an in-depth analysis intends to contribute immensely to policymaking.
The book consists of 10 chapters. Chapter 2 discusses the nature and dimensions of demand for pulses. Although the average levels of consumption of pulses has been stagnant at global level, there has been an increase in the demand for consumption in India and Sub-Saharan Africa. An interesting feature of the pattern of consumption that has been highlighted in this book is the direct relationship between pulse consumption and the rise in per capita income in many developing countries, whereas an inverse relationship holds between the two in many developed countries. However, the same direct relationship does not hold in some developing countries due to the stagnant nature of consumption in these countries. In countries like India, the widening gap between demand and supply, on one side, and a positive relationship between the consumption and rise in per capita income, on the other, points out the pressing need to bridge the gap of potential and actual yield. The effective policy interventions can play a pivotal role in addressing the food and nutritional security in these countries. Therefore, the book also highlights the pressing need for several policy measures to improve the awareness of the health and nutritional benefits of pulse consumption in those countries where consumption is stagnant and policy measures to bridge the gap between potential and actual yield in those countries where there is an increase in demand. Additionally, the analysis provides an interesting insight into the threshold of income that an economy needs to attain in order to exhibit a shift away from pulses (inferior) consumption to other protein rich (superior) food.
Since the need for a region- and crop-specific analysis of production and consumption is highlighted in this study, the remaining chapters (chapters 3–8) make a detailed crop-specific analysis. Accordingly, each chapter is devoted for the analysis of various crops, such as chickpea (Ch. 3), pulses of phaseous and Vigna genera (Ch. 4), lentil (Ch. 5), pigeon pea (Ch. 6), dry pea (Ch. 7), and pulses of Vicia genus (Ch. 8).
Chapter 3 discusses the case of chickpea by giving emphasis on the factors constraining the production by highlighting various technological, economic, and policy level issues. Although the profitability of producing chickpea is lower than that of other crops such as wheat, rice, barley and rapeseed in many countries, various technological and policy interventions, adoption of improved seed varieties, and modern agronomic practices can address these profitability concerns. As discussed in the report, the shift of chickpea cultivation away from north western, eastern, and central India to central and southern India is the result of such technological interventions which developed heat resistant short-duration varieties. One important strand of analysis which is missing in this book while discussing the case of Indian pulses production is the analysis of the attempt by the Government of India to boost pulse production through the launch of National Food Security Mission (NFSM). Various technological interventions made through NFSM in major pulse-producing states of India has the potential to make pulse production a lucrative one. There are studies that argue that this has played a positive role in encouraging pulse production. However, a breakthrough in technological innovations are highly required to reduce the crop loss and to improve productivity, as rightly pointed out in the book. Similarly, the Government’s minimum support prices (MSP) for pulses were also rising at a much faster rate than cereals. But the lack of assured market and inefficiencies in the procurement operations are adversely affecting farmers’ incentives to produce pulses. The same is the case with pigeon pea as well. The widening demand supply gap, the inefficiencies in the procurement operations even after announcing higher MSP for pulses etc., might have contributed to the soaring of wholesale and retail prices in India. The study shows that the open market prices in India were higher than the MSP. This is also pointing out the iefficient procurement operations by procurement agencies.
After discussing various production and consumption constraints of various pulses, Chapter 9 meticulously discusses marketing challenges and value chain issues and inefficiencies, especially in developing countries, that discourage farmers from producing pulses. The chapter also analyses the effectiveness of commodity futures in mitigating the risk and the impact of futures market on price discovery in the spot market and volatility in spot prices. Chapter10, finally, discusses the main factors that contributed to the growth in pulse production and examines the prospects for future growth.
Although the scope for substitutability between various types of pulses in consumption has been discussed in the study, there is hardly any discussion on the scope for substitutability in production and the importance of non-price factors that constrain the ability of substitution at the production front. For example, the report mentions how dry pea is a cheaper substitute for mung bean in vermicelli manufacture in China; and, similarly, how dry pea is used for adulterating chickpea flour in India. The nutritional and health implications of substitutability in consumption have not been analysed in detail in this study.
To sum up, the book provides a very comprehensive analysis of global trends in production, consumption, and import dependency of pulses, along with an analysis of marketing bottlenecks and value chain issues. The study has also explored the effectiveness of futures market in price discovery and risk mitigation. The results from the analysis offer unique policy-relevant insights on the importance of pulses production in meeting the nutritional insecurity that is a baffling concern for several developing countries. The study will be found useful by policymakers, researchers, agricultural scientists, and others interested in issues of food and nutritional insecurity and the welfare of small farmers.