Thursday, August 9, 2012

YELLOW PEA CULTIVATION IN INDIA


Yellow Pea cultivation

According to the archeologists, the green pea, also known by the name of garden pea originated in China or Egypt dating back to around 10000 years. The clues of the presence of peas have been found from the archeological sites of the Middle East. The people in china believe that the father of agriculture in china, Shu Nung, discovered peas 5000 years ago. Also, there are many legends and stories related to the origination of peas. One of the legends suggests that pea occurred in the world as a punishment to the humans when Thor, the lord of thunder, sent dragons to foul all the wells on the earth with the help of peas. The earliest references of peas in charred form were obtained from the Egyptian tombs of the 12th dynasty. The crop was domesticated shortly after wheat and barley were domesticated.
The peas were not a popular food crop initially as the other pulses were preferred. In the middle ages, people use to dry these seeds and use to keep it with them to consume it at the time of famine. After America was discovered, the peas was introduced into the country as the people who use to sail to America from Europe kept with them dry peas as they are nutritious and require less space for storage. In fact, it was one of the first crops that were planted into America by the Europeans.
The people in Europe started consuming peas properly as late as in the 17th century. The popularity of wheat shot up at that time and it became a staple food crop for many of the countries.
Pea is a crop that grows well in cool and moist weather. Unlike other vegetable crops, it cannot survive warm temperatures and only yield efficiently if cultivated in cool conditions, though; heat tolerant varieties have also been developed. It takes around 2 months for the planted seed to reach maturity level. The soil should be well drained for the pea plant to prosper without direct contact with fertilizer. Though most of the varieties of pea are self-supportive, once the seed germinates and the plant shows up, it can be tied to a stick or pole for better support.
Different varieties of peas are harvested differently. The garden peas are ready for harvest when they are swollen. The other pea that include sugar snap pea are harvested every 1 to 3 days and the snow peas are picked when the pod reaches it maximum length generally after 5 to 7 days of flowering. In India, pea is an important rabi crop as it is sown in the winter season.
Dry pea is an annual pulse, legume crop that is consumed throughout the globe. It is usually used in split form and forms integral part of various cuisines of the world. The pea is obtained as seeds from the pod that occurs on the pea plant and is dried in the sunlight to produce dry pea. This crop is considered to be the best crop for the purpose of nitrogen fixing of the soil as it converts nitrogen into nitrogen nodules in large numbers, keeping the soil fertile. Two types of dry pea are cultivated – dry green cotyledon and dry yellow cotyledon. 

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