INTRODUCTION

Because of its exuberant biodiversity, the Conservation International, in 1998 declared India as one among the 17 megadiveristy countries of the world.  Decades before this recognition came,  a Russian geneticist and plant breeder Nikolai Vavilov in  his work The Phytogeographical Basis for Plant Breeding (1935) identified the entire ‘Hindustan’ (the entire Indian subcontinent) as  one of the eight global centres for the origin of cultivated plants.  This has been on the premises that the major crops of the world which were developed over millennia, must have originated from a central point from where they dispersed (Hummer and Hancock, 2015). Several pulses of Indian origin included chickpea, pigeon pea (red gram), green gram, black gram, horse gram, rice bean, moth bean, cowpea etc.

What are pulses?
FAO, (2016) applies the term pulses to those seeds of legumes which are dry, edible and with low fat content. "Legume" refers to the plants whose fruit is enclosed in a pod. Pulses are second only to the cereals as human food. FAO does not consider pulses legume fruits or seeds used as green (e.g., green peas, green beans, cowpea), those seeds used for oil extraction (e.g., soybean, groundnut) and for green fodder (e.g., clover, alfalfa). They are superfoods that are incredibly healthy, affordable and tasty.  Storable for long pulses are they are most important sources of vegetable proteins, also rich in fibre, iron, potassium, folate (folic acid- one of the B vitamins) etc. in addition to antioxidants; they are free of cholesterol and gluten. From time immemorial pulses occupy a unique place in the nutritional security of India, which despite being the second most populous in the world, is a special country in the world teeming with full time and part-time vegetarians, irrespective of richness or poverty.  Paradoxically, the International Year of Pulses-2016, which should have been of highest significance to our country, is ending, leaving a legacy of risen prices, but also hopes of slackening market trends. Let the year depart leaving a glow behind, kindling renewed interest in pulses so that, hereafter, a festival of pulses is celebrated year after year!

Why the Year of Pulses? The IYP 2016 aims to heighten public awareness of the nutritional benefits of pulses as part of sustainable food production aimed towards food security and nutrition. The Year will create a unique opportunity to encourage connections throughout the food chain that would better utilize pulse-based proteins, further global production of pulses, better utilize crop rotations and address the challenges in the trade of pulses. The specific objectives of the IYP 2016 are:

• Raise awareness about the important role of pulses in sustainable food production and healthy diets and their contribution to food security and nutrition;
• Promote the value and utilization of pulses throughout the food system, their benefits for soil fertility and climate change and for combating malnutrition;
• Encourage connections throughout the food chain to further global production of pulses, foster enhanced research, better utilize crop rotations and address the challenges in the trade of pulses.

(source: http://www.fao.org/pulses-2016)
Domestication history of pulses: Pulses were among the earliest domesticated plants by humans and have played critical part of food, especially during the transition from hunting-gathering times to livestock rearing and agriculture.  The Fertile Crescent, a crescent-shaped region composed of the relatively moist and fertile land of otherwise arid and semi-arid regions to the east of the Mediterranean, encompassing the Eupratis and Tigris drainage basins  and the drainage basin of the River Nile, the meeting place of Asia, Africa and Europe, which witnessed the rise and fall of important civilizations, was among the earliest and richest global centres of pulses cultivation. Four of four Vavilovian centres of the origin of cultivated plants, come in close proximity here connected through mountain passes, plains and river valleys.  These centres China, Hindustan, Central Asia and Persia, together were the homes to bulk of the pulses that mankind have been using, namely common bean (China), pigeonpea, chickpea, mothbean, ricebean, horsegram (Hindustan), pea, lentil, chickpea (Central Asia), chickpea, lentil, pea (Persia), witnessed between active movements humans, traders, farmers and herders between them facilitating the spread of pulses, cereals and vegetables.  These centres also harbor bulk of the wild relatives of these cultivated pulses.
The Fertile Crescent yielded archaeological evidences for cultivation of pea dating back to 11,000-10,000 years BP in Syria and Turkey. Lentils figure in Syrian sites by 10,200-8,700 years BP. Peas developed beginning circa 10,500 cal BP. The earliest chickpea seeds were from northwest Syria. The wild chickpea (Cicer reticulatum) was domesticated in parts of Turkey and Syria 11,000 years ago. The currently grown chickpeas are of two major types namely Desi and Kabuli, the former more angular and darker and the latter more rounded and lighter in colour. Desi is considered to be the oldest variety. There is some evidence from the Shanidar Cave of Iraq that 46,000 years ago, Neanderthals ate chickpeas (Hirst, 2016).  

Between 10,500 and 7,500 years ago domestication of animals, especially goats, pigs, sheep and cattle in South-west Asia was getting integrated into growing of cereals and pulses. This system of livestock cum cereals-pulses spread into Europe, North Africa, and into Central and South Asia (Harris, 2005). Evidences exist on the uses of pulses in the Neolithic and Bronze Age of the Old World. Lentil, pea and grasspea were cultivated by the first farmers of South-east Europe. Several pulses of these times were retrieved from Greece (Valamoti et.al., 2011). Lentil, chickpea, pea etc. were obtained from 9th millennium BC archaeological findings of Syria and Israel (Medovic and Mikic, 2014). Lentil and pea were cultivated in the Caucuses part of Armenia by Neolithic farmers of late 7th to 5th millennium BC (Hovsepyan,  2011). By 7th millennium BP soybean cultivation probably began in Chinese Neolithic sites. Cowpea was cultivated in Sub-Saharan Sudan (Harris, 2005). Between 4800 and 3200 years ago greengram and horsegram were cultivated in South Indian Neolithic sites (Fuller et al., 2001). Late Harappan sites, during 2nd millennium BC, had greengram and blackgram; these along with horsegram had figured in the South Indian and Late Harappan sites of Gujarat. African origin pulses hyacinth bean and cowpea were grown in Gujarat and South India after 1800 B.C. (Ahmed, 2014).  Tehuacan Valley of Mexico witnessed cultivation of common bean 2300 years ago (Kaplan and Lynch, 1999).