Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction: biosystematics of the legumes
- 2 The role of grain legumes in the human economy
- 3 The groundnut, Arachis hypogaea L.
- 4 The New World pulses: Phaseolus species
- 5 The Old World pulses: Vigna species
- 6 Pulses of the classical world
- 7 The other legume oilseeds
- 8 The pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.)
- 9 Minor grain legumes
- 10 Germplasm resources and the future
- References
- Postscript
- Supplementary references
- Author index
- General index
2 - The role of grain legumes in the human economy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction: biosystematics of the legumes
- 2 The role of grain legumes in the human economy
- 3 The groundnut, Arachis hypogaea L.
- 4 The New World pulses: Phaseolus species
- 5 The Old World pulses: Vigna species
- 6 Pulses of the classical world
- 7 The other legume oilseeds
- 8 The pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.)
- 9 Minor grain legumes
- 10 Germplasm resources and the future
- References
- Postscript
- Supplementary references
- Author index
- General index
Summary
If one were writing a school report on grain legumes the observation ‘could do better’ might very well be apposite, with all that this remark implies. The major preoccupation of many engaged in legume research is to find out why these crops in their performance so often fall far short of our expectations. There is some encouraging evidence that, in favourable conditions, some grain legumes at least can in fact perform very well indeed. The nadir of grain legume performance, as far as many people are concerned, is undoubtedly the notorious fiasco of the Overseas Food Corporation's East African Groundnut Scheme of the late 1940s and early 1950s. Curiously enough, it is also the groundnut which has given the clearest indication of what might lie in the realms of future grain legume production. The highest recorded groundnut yields (9.6 t ha–1 pods, equivalent to 6.41 ha–1 kernels) have been obtained in Zimbabwe with the cultivar Makulu Red (Hildebrand and Smartt, 1980). Interestingly, this cultivar was not the product of a long-drawn-out and expensive breeding programme but obtained as a single plant selection from a Bolivian landrace ‘maní pintado’. Agricultural improvement depends as much on recognising opportunities such as this and exploiting them efficiently, as on the execution of complex research programmes. Unfortunately it is the more grandiose schemes, not the most cost-effective, which make the headlines and attract the attention of the politicians.
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- Grain LegumesEvolution and Genetic Resources, pp. 9 - 29Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1990
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