Tur cultivation:
Pigeon pea or tur plant is an annual
crop, cultivated for its sweet tasting legumes, which is consumed as a popular
staple diet in many countries. It belongs to the family of ‘Fabaceae’ and is
also known as Cajanus Cajan. This plant is a single, woody stemmed plant
reaches about 4 meters in height and has a sophisticated root system that it
makes it a drought resistant type. Pigeon pea plant has multi coloured flowers
with most of them being yellow coloured. Mostly cultivated as secondary or
mixed crop, pigeon pea is cultivated in around 25 countries of the world.
The peas or legume of this plant is
termed with various names in different cultures such as red gram, Congo pea,
Gungo pea, no eye pea etc and are widely consumed throughout the world.
Pigeon pea originated in Asian continent
particularly it is said that to be a native to India in as long as 3000 years
ago. From India, it was taken to the eastern African region approximately a
thousand years ago. Then it was called ‘Gandoles’ and was cultivated in Egypt
according to the remnants found in the tombs of Egypt.
When Columbus discovered the new world
or America, the African or the black people were taken there as slaves. Pigeon
peas travelled to the new world with the slaves of America. This was the time
when this crop started gaining popularity and cultivation of pigeon pea, on a
wider level, got started. Tur has maintained its reputation since then and even
now it is being widely demanded.
Pigoen pea is mostly cultivated as a secondary or
mixed crop throughout the world. It is mainly a tropical crop which is
cultivated with the cereal grains such as maize, millet and sorghum etc. This
crop can be long lasting crop as it can last for a period of 3-5 years but it
is generally grown as an annual crop. It is basically a drought resistant crop
due to its long tap roots and that is why it is cultivated in semi arid areas.
Pigeon pea is also helpful in the process of nitrogen fixation of the soil.
In India, the sowing season for this
crop is in the summers or the kharif season. June and July are considered to be
the best time to plant this crop. The seeds of pigeon pea starts germinating in
two weeks time. The plant starts flowering with the upcoming of October and it
is harvested in December and January. In Africa, the harvesting period of
pigeon pea crop is around June and July.
During harvesting, the crop is picked
by hand, dried in the sun and then it is taken for threshing process. After
threshing has been done, the remaining grain is cleaned through the winnowing
process. The crop starts arriving in the Indian market from October.
The legumes of the pigeon pea plant are
not actually peas but contribute to one of the most famous pulse in the world.
In both new and old worlds, this pulse bears a high popularity level and it is
proven by the fact that it is cultivated in more than 25 countries of the
world. As compared to the other pulses produced in the world, pigeon pea or tur
holds the sixth rank in the context of production. The world production of this
crop figures around 3.25 million tons annually. Dominant producers of this crop
are the countries in the Indian subcontinent, Africa and Central America as the
climate conditions suit the development of the crop. The leading producer is
India producing about 85 % of the world’s total produce. Pigeon pea is consumed
throughout the world as a staple food. It is also consumed as a green vegetable
and as a fodder crop.
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