ABSTRACT
Pulses belong to the taxonomic family Fabaceae, containing over 18,000 species divided into the three sub-families Mimosoideae, Caesalpinoideae and Papilionoideae. Pulses are commonly cultivated for several decades in all over the world because of the nutritional value of their seeds. The productivity of pulses has increased about 77% at 779 kg/ha during 2016-17 from the level of 441 kg/ha during 1950-51. Among the different legumes grown in India, black gram and green gram are the most commonly cultivated pulses in southern part of India, particularly Tamil Nadu for various food purposes. In India, the area occupied by mung bean is about 3.0 million ha with total production of 1.1 million tones but average productivity is 3.20 and and in Tamil Nadu it is 1.1 million ha with total production 0.55 lakh tonnes. In Tamil Nadu, black gram covers an area of about 3.06 lakh hectares with production of 1.70 million tonnes and productivity of 555 kg/ha.
