Publication
from the World Vegetable Center
Sweet future for mungbean in Pakistan
Short-duration mungbean can enrich soils — and farmers — when intercropped in sugarcane’s long production cycle.
 | Mungbean offers many advantages to sugarcane farmers in Pakistan.
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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.
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