‘Pulses can improve the condition of your soil’

Ashton Mutyavaviri
AS the world celebrates the Pulses Day today, experts have called on farmers to value the production of crops such as sugar beans, cowpeas, green beans and lentils that fall under the pulse family to improve soil and health diets.Agricultural and Rural Development Advisory Services (ARDAS) director for Mashonaland East Mr Leonard Munamati said pulses had a long shelf life, which means they could be stored for a long period without losing their nutritional value.

“For smallholder farmers, pulses are an important source of affordable proteins that are cheaper than animal sourced protein. Pulses increase biodiversity as they are able to fix their own nitrogen into the soil, which increases soil fertility,” said Mr Munamati.

He urged farmers to practise multiple cropping systems, such as intercropping or rotating crops with pulses to improve soil carbon sequestration.

“Pulse consumption is linked to healthy weight maintenance and the prevention of several chronic diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, digestive health problems, obesity and diabetes.
“As natural cholesterol-free, gluten-free and vegetarian/vegan food, they can easily be incorporated into special eating patterns such as diabetic diets, gluten-free diets, vegetarian diets, and weight management diets,” he explained.
When farmers grow pulses, they can help Zimbabwe and most other countries in Africa to eradicate hunger and poverty, as well as supporting other efforts to improve soil conditions and climate action, said Mr Munamati.

Farmers across the country must not underestimate the value of pulse crops such as sugar beans in improving their income streams and liquidity, he said.
Meanwhile, statistics released by the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development show that there was an increase in pulse production for the past five years with bandara nuts recording 111 percent, African peas 172 percent and common beans 228 percent.

Source: The Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development

The World Pulse Day is an important day to highlight the health benefits of pulses and spread awareness about the benefits, value and worth of pulses.
Pulses help replenish urea and minerals in soil, a major component of various climate action plans Zimbabwe has adopted and ratified.
Climate change is now a very pressing matter around the globe and growing pulses can help to retain soil nutrients and conserve important soil properties that help boost crop productivity.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) posted on the X (formerly Twitter) that pulses could make essential nutrients available in the soil.

“Pulses get over 60 percent of their nitrogen from the air. This nitrogen is then fed into the soil and allows these legumes to share it with nearby crops, essentially reducing the need for chemical fertilisers.

This unique ability is called biological nitrogen fixation where they convert atmospheric nitrogen gas into ammonia (a plant-usable form of nitrogen,” read the post.