Mitigating pulse productivity constraints through phosphorus fertilization-a review

Pulses occupy an important position in food and nutritional security in India. Food security has been a major area of concern for agricultural scientists and planners in India since long. India produces over 200 million tonnes of foodgrains every year with an increase of four folds since independence. Increased efforts to produce more food have resulted in tremendous shift in cropping systems towards cereal-cereal based systems. But, still India is far behind in pulses production. In order to harness higher yields, phosphorus nutrition plays an important role besides other crop management factors. Hence, it is imperative to understand the constraints in pulse production to realize higher productivity and maintain soil health. P is important plant nutrient alongwith other major nutrients in pulses. This becomes more important when most of the Indian soils are P deficient and the farmers do not care for P nutrition in pulses resulting in lower pulse production, and making dependent on pulse imports for feeding the huge population causing sizable drain of foreign exchange.