ABSTRACT
“Daffodils” that once filled the heart of William Wordsworth with pleasure and “bliss of solitude” in the musings of his famous poem once again were referred to in publications, finding themselves in the center of a fierce debate on climate change due to their early unseasonal bloom (https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/dec/20/global-warming-weather-environment-el-nino; https://www.thenation.com/article/daffodil-delusion-sensationalizing-global-warming/; Sparks 2014; Vaz et al. 2016). “Climate” is defined as weather conditions prevailing in a particular region over a period of time. Changes in these conditions are mainly attributed to the anthropogenic activities and extensive use of fossil fuels post-industrial revolution and are described as “climate change.” If the early bloom of daffodils is due to climate change is not clear, yet climate change is real with widespread consequences. Climate change can adversely affect agriculture, particularly in low- to mid-latitude countries like India that are heavily dependent on rain-fed agriculture and exhibit limitations with respect to the arable land (Crosson 1989; Gornall et al. 2010). Edible grain legumes, also known as pulses, are the largest single source of vegetable protein in the human diet and are considered the backbone of sustainable agriculture (Araújo et al. 2015; Rubiales and Mikic 2014). Legumes are grown in almost every climatic region with wide ranges of soil, yet most of the 144grain legume production is in developing countries of the semi-arid tropics (Daryanto et al. 2015; Nedumaran et al. 2015). These areas contribute a vast diversity of pulses like dry beans, chickpeas, and dry peas to the world production. Like cereals, pulses are also susceptible to various abiotic stresses, particularly drought and heat that are predicted to exacerbate under the climate change scenario. However, unlike cereals, pulses are often grown in marginal lands with resource poor farmers, and that adds to the effects of these stresses.
