Nutritious, versatile mungbean: A good choice for rotation into rice-wheat systems in Pakistan.

A new United States Agency for International Development (USAID) project to expand the use of modern technologies in the country will also promote mungbean and other short-duration legume crops to broaden and diversify Pakistan’s agricultural sector.

AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center will join the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the University of California, Davis in the effort.

Mungbean (Vigna radiata) has long been of interest to plant breeders at AVRDC, where research to improve the crop has been ongoing since the early 1970s. And with good reason: This nutritious legume provides a cheap source of high quality protein and contributes folate and iron to the diet—nutrients that often are in short supply in developing countries. Versatile mungbean can be consumed as dhal, in soup, as sprouts or processed into high value noodles; immature pods are eaten as vegetables.

Mungbean also fixes nitrogen in the soil, making it a beneficial addition to crop rotations; crops planted after mungbean get a boost in yield due to the additional nitrogen in the soil.

To ensure farmers would be able to plant and harvest a mungbean crop between plantings of rice or wheat, Center researchers developed high yielding, short duration mungbean varieties in collaboration with 29 national partners across Asia, including those in Pakistan. Over the last two decades the improved varieties changed a relatively marginal crop into one of the most important grain legumes in Asia, revolutionized the mungbean processing industry, and increased global production by more than a third. In Pakistan, mungbean yields have increased by up to 50% and per capita consumption by 22%.

Innovative technologies spurred the Green Revolution in rice and wheat in the 1960s and 1970s. The adoption of improved varieties, combined with strategic policies and investments, led to a doubling of yields and output in those two decades. With investment in research, Pakistan transformed its agricultural sector into a driver for economic growth.

Currently, Pakistan’s agricultural sector is growing at a much slower pace than other sectors. “Pakistan’s agricultural productivity has fallen behind comparable countries with similar agro-ecologies,” said Thomas Lumpkin, Director General of CIMMYT. “There is a tremendous potential for growth, but we must act now.”

Through the four-year, $30 million project, USAID will sponsor research to encourage adoption of new technologies in agriculture, such as zero tillage, protected vegetable production systems and value chain management, introducing short duration legumes into rice-wheat cropping systems, and custom service systems for machinery. High value legume crops like vegetable soybean (edamame) with basmati flavor will be promoted to farmers as a new opportunity for income generation. The project also will offer short and long-term training.

“Boosting Pakistan’s economy is one of our top assistance priorities,” said USAID Country Director Jonathan M. Conly at the launch of the project in Islamabad on March 8. “That’s why this project will work to modernize agricultural practices to increase the production and quality of livestock and horticultural goods. This in turn will enhance economic development in the country.”