Post-harvest profile of red gram - Agmarknet

R1.0 INTRODUCTIONed gram is an important pulse crop in India. It is also known as Pigeonpea, Arharand Tur. Red gram is mainly cultivated and consumed in developing countries ofthe world. This crop is widely grown in India. India is the largest producer andconsumer of Red gram in the world. Red gram accounted for about 20 percent of the totalproduction of pulses in the country during the year 2000-2001.Red gram is a protein rich staple food. It contains about 22percent protein, which is almost three times that of cereals. Redgram supplies a major share of protein requirement of vegetarianpopulation of the country. Red gram is mainly consumed in theform of split pulse as Dal, which is an essential supplement ofcereal based diet. The combinations of Dal-Chawal (pulse-rice) orDal-Roti (pulse-wheat bread) are the main ingredients in theaverage Indian diet. The biological value improves greatly, whenwheat or rice is combined with Red gram because of thecomplementary relationship of the essential amino acids. It isparticularly rich in lysine, riboflavin, thiamine, niacin and iron.In addition to being an important source of human foodand animal feed, Red gram also plays an important role insustaining soil fertility by improving physical properties of soil and fixing atmospheric nitrogen.Being a drought resistant crop, it is suitable for dryland farming and predominantly used as anintercrop with other crops. Nutritional values of edible portion of Red gram are given in TableNo.1.CropRedgramDalTable No. 1: Nutritional values of edible portion per 100 g of Red gramEnergy(cal)Protein(g)Fat(g)Ca(mg)Fe(mg)Thiamin(mg)Riboflavin(mg)Niacin(mg)Vit.Avalue(mcg)335 22.3 1.7 7.3 5.8 0.45 0.19 2.9 132Source: Nutritive value of Indian Foods, by Gopalan, C., et al., Indian council of MedicalResearch publication, 1971, PP. 60-114.1.1 Origin:Its actual place of origin is very controversial as some people believe, it originated inIndia, while others say, it originated in Africa. According to Vavilov (1928), genus Cajanusoriginated in the Hindustan. As per Van Der Maesen (1980) also, the centre of origin of thecrop is India. According to Bentham (1861) and De Candolle (1886), it originated in Africa.Botanical Description:Red gram [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.] belongs to family Leguminosae. Numerousnodules are present on roots, these nodules contain Rhizobium bacteria, which fixesatmospheric nitrogen. The flowers are self-pollinated but cross-fertilization may also occur tosome extent. The fruit of the Red gram is a pod. Seeds are round or lens shaped. Numerous1