Collaboration among sectors to increase pulse consumption.

Abstract

The United Nations declaration of 2016 as the International Year of Pulses (IYP) provided an unprecedented opportunity to showcase pulses on the global stage for their contribution to affordable nutrition, health, and sustainability. Despite the IYP's successes in stakeholder engagement, continuing to foster and strengthen partnerships and collaborations is necessary to meet the IYP goals of increased pulse production and consumption for human benefit. Shifting consumer behavior to increase pulse consumption emerged during IYP meetings as a shared priority for all stakeholders. Focusing on this shared priority provides an opportunity to strengthen collaboration among all stakeholder groups for research, education, marketing, and ingredient/food production. Although the IYP officially closed at the end of 2016, the pulse community has an opportunity to continue building successful collaborations. The future research agenda can foster increased pulse production and consumption to address global nutrition, health, and sustainability challenges, provided that it is developed with multisectorial perspectives and cross-disciplinary collaborations. But, most importantly, the research agenda for pulses must be centered more deliberately on the end consumer and how to drive shifts in behavior toward increased pulse consumption, as this is the common shared priority around which all stakeholders can rally.