Which of the following states is the biggest producer of Pulses?

Correct — B. Madhya Pradesh is India's largest producer of pulses.

The reason is land and crop mix. The state carries a very large rabi area under gram, or chana, the biggest single pulse crop, along with tur, urad and lentil.

Moisture-holding black soils suit pulses, which are grown largely without irrigation on land that would not support a second irrigated cereal.

Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh are the other large pulse-growing states, and their order among themselves moves from year to year. None of the three states offered against Madhya Pradesh here is a major pulse producer.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Bihar — Bihar grows pulses on a modest area, mainly lentil. Its cropping is dominated by rice, wheat and maize, so it does not come near the national lead.
• (c)
  Punjab — Punjab is the wheat and paddy state of the Green Revolution. Assured irrigation and procurement pulled land away from pulses, leaving its pulse area small.
• (d)
  Haryana — Haryana follows the same wheat-paddy pattern. Gram once mattered in its dry south-west, but irrigation replaced much of that area with cereals.

Pulses are legumes - gram, tur or arhar, urad, moong and masur - and they fix nitrogen, so they leave the soil better than they found it.

India is the world's largest producer of pulses and also its largest consumer, and still imports to close the gap.

Most pulses are rainfed crops grown on marginal land, which is exactly why heavily irrigated states with assured cereal procurement grow so few of them.

Madhya Pradesh leads on gram, while tur or arhar comes mainly from Maharashtra and Karnataka.

Key facts

• Madhya Pradesh is the largest pulses-producing state in India.
• Gram, or chana, is the largest single pulse crop grown in the country.
• India is the world's largest producer and consumer of pulses and still imports them.
• Pulses are legumes that fix atmospheric nitrogen in the soil.

Common traps

• Picking Punjab or Haryana because they lead in foodgrain output, which means wheat and rice, not pulses.
• Reading the largest pulse-producing state as the largest gram-producing state, which need not be the same in a given year.

No directly related past PYQ was found.