Cool Season Food Legumes in Rice Fallows: An Indian Perspective

Abstract

Cool season food legumes like lentil, chickpea, field pea, and grass pea hold immense promise to outperform cereals and oilseeds by thriving on residual soil moisture of rice fallows in India. Diversification of mono-cropped rice system with food legumes breaks the cycle of rice pests and diseases and improves the structure, fertility, and health of soil, thereby augmenting the overall productivity and sustainability of rice-fallow systems of Eastern India and Central Plateau. The introduction of improved cool season food legume varieties suiting the rice-fallow ecology along with adequate technological interventions can successfully convert the rice-fallow system to the rice-food legume system, which ensures food and nutritional security to the farming community. Moreover, inclusion of food legumes also contributes toward socio-economic upliftment of thesmallholder rice farmers of the region by offering a monetarily lucrative farming option. The present chapter provides insights into the constraints of incorporating cool season food legumes in rice fallows and possible strategies to challenge the constraints. Strategies include improved agronomy, appropriate breeding interventions, and suitable crop protection measures that turn cool season food legumes in rice fallows into a win-win situation for both the researching and farming communities by paving a way toward long-term sustainability and subsistence.