Problems of Summer Mungbean Cultivation in Punjab#

Mungbean (Green gram) is an important pulse crop that is under cultivation since prehistoric time in India. The short duration pulses like summer mungbean offer a most valuable option for crop diversification which is the need of the hour but production of major pulses is constrained by several biotic and abiotic stresses. This study was conducted in the Punjab state to examine the problems of summer mungbean cultivation. Seventy farmers were selected from five clusters on the basis of the highest concentration of mungbean growing area. The findings revealed that amongst the five different problem areas of summer mungbean cultivation, production-related problems ranked first followed by storage problems, problems related to marketing, value addition and processing, problems related to capacity building and economic and managerial problems for summer mungbean cultivation. The study further pointed out that uncertainty in weather, difficulty in labour management, lack of knowledge about machinery for value addition and packaging, non-availability of market information, and lack of advance payment for stored produce were some of the major problems faced by the summer mungbean growers of Punjab. Emphasis needs to be given by the government on capacity building of the farmers, availability of relevant machinery and establishment of small-scale enterprises on value addition of summer mungbean.