Sweet future for mungbean in Pakistan

Short-duration mungbean can enrich soils — and farmers — when intercropped in sugarcane’s long production cycle.

In Pakistan, mungbean is usually grown in rotation with wheat, but AVRDC is broadening opportunities for the crop by intercropping it with sugarcane.

Mungbean is an important summer legume grown in Pakistan, accounting for 14% of total pulse production. Along with chickpea it is the major legume consumed in the country, and failure of the crop causes big problems for farmers and consumers alike. Although production is currently keeping up with local demand, there is a huge opportunity to expand exports.

Most mungbean is grown in southern Punjab province in a wheat-mungbean rotation. But there is great potential in central Punjab to intercrop mungbean with sugarcane to expand the area of cultivation and improve soil fertility.

Recently, the Agriculture Innovation Program for Pakistan (AIP) project introduced this innovative intercropping system into that area and held a field day to demonstrate the new practice and give hands-on training to farmers on managing the crop and integrated pest management practices.

The field day was held in Mumdana Kalan-Kamalia village, in Toba Tek Singh District of Punjab. It was organized by AVRDC partners the Pulses Research Institute, Ayub Agricultural Research Institute, Faisalabad, and the Punjab Agriculture Extension Department.

Mungbean intercropping improves soil fertility and provides extra income for farmers without interfering with the long sugarcane cropping cycle. There are 700,000 ha in Pakistan with the potential for intercropping in the February-March planting of sugarcane. Farmers were excited by this innovation and eager to adopt it; after seeing the benefits of this practice many are planning to cultivate a large area next season.

Both the area of mungbean and national production over the next few years are expected to increase as new niches for mungbean are created in sugarcane areas. But the project is also demonstrating the use of mungbean in a range of other cropping systems. Over a million hectares of irrigated rice-wheat systems could also include mungbean as a catch crop as well as half a million hectares of wheat fallows in the medium to high rainfall zones. The future is sweet for mungbean in Pakistan.

Mungbean offers many advantages to sugarcane farmers in Pakistan.

Mungbean offers many advantages to sugarcane farmers in Pakistan.