Achievements on pulses & oilseed research in BRAC have been described. #suggested link of my you tube video on mung bean: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iEszjkUab4&t=8s and the link of lentil cultivation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3DfknzVx_c #also the link of sesame cultivation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAFjWsPetK8&t=79s

1. Research-Development and
Dissemination Activities for Pulses
and Oil Seed Crops in BRAC
By
Dr. S. C. Biswas

2. Importance of Pulse crops
• Pulses are very important crops in Bangladesh.
• Pulses are also a food crop in Bangladesh and used to call
as Poor’s Men Protein.
• Pulses play a significant role in rainfed agriculture of
Bangladesh.
• On an average about 5 lakh 50 thousand tons of pulses are
produced in Bangladesh every year.
• Among different pulses, Grass pea, Lentil, Mungbean,
Chick pea, Black gram, Pigeon pea and Cow pea etc. are
the major ones and they contribute more than 95% of the
total pulses production in the country.

3. Contd.
• Food legumes have traditionally been cultivated in Bangladesh under
rain fed condition and require less input.
• Their inherently low yield potential compared to cereals, susceptibility
to diseases and pest and sensitivity to micro climatic changes
contribute to their yield instability.
• Since Bangladesh has an acute shortage of food grain production,
cereal cultivation receives top priority in the farming community.
• So the area and production of almost all the legumes have been
decreased over the last decade.
• To halt the declining trend in area and production, research program
was launched by BRAC during the year 2000 and seed production as
well as variety development program was initiated to augment the
pulse production of Bangladesh.

4. Importance of oil crops
• Edible oil is an important ingredient of our regular diet. This oil is
obtained from two main sources; plants and animals.
• The oil derived from plants is more desirable than the fat derived from
animal source.
• The oil obtained from the plant can be easily digested and its nutritive
value is also high.
• The total consumption of oil is 12.8gm per capita per day and out of
that only 4.2 gm comes from the plant in Bangladesh (BBS, 1978).
• There is scope for meeting this current nutritional deficiency by the
cultivation of oil crops.
• Considering the importance of these oil crops BRAC started its oil
seed program during the year 2000-2001 and has been playing an
important role in the cultivation of oilseeds in Bangladesh.

5. Seed Production of Pulse Crops
• Considering production potentiality as pulse crop, soil improving
capability and huge potentiality of making confectionary products,
seed production program of Mungbean was started during the year
2000-01.
• A production target plan of 40 metric tons of certified seed of
Mungbean was fixed for Magura region during the year 2000-2001.
• One of the popular improved Mungbean varieties, BARI moog-2 was
selected for seed production and its certified seeds were produced at 4
locations of the region.
• Since a very good response from the pulse growers was observed in the
following year i.e. in the 2001-2002.
• In the following year a target of 30 metric tons of Mungbean seed
production was taken involving 255 contract growers.

6. Table. Production target of certified seeds of
Mungbean during the year 2000-2001.
Location Crop Variety Land Farmers Certi-
(acre) fied
seed
(MT)
Magura Mungbean BARI moog-2 80 240 40
Sadar,
Sreepur,
Hatgopalpur
&
Kotchandpur

7. Table. Target plan of certified seed production of
Mung bean during 2001- 2002.
Pulse Variety Land No. of Requi- Certified
crop (acre) farmers red seed
founda- (kg)
tion
seed
Mung BARI moog -2 60 180 480 20000
bean
Mung BARI moog- 5 25 75 250 10000
bean
Total 2 85 255 730 30000

8. Lentil
• Lentil is the second important pulse crop in Bangladesh
covering about 2.07 lakh hectares of land producing about
1 lakh 70 thousand tons.
• The farmers don’t get quality seed for cultivation in time.
• Under these circumstances BRAC has initiated seed
production in Lentil to produce and distribute quality
seeds of lentil for boosting lentil production at the farmer’s
level.
• In the year of 2000-2001 and 2001-2002, Lentil was
included in the seed production program and for the
production of 10 metric tons of certified seed of lentil for
the year 2001-2002.
• Foundation seeds of BARI masur-2 & BARI masur- 4 were
produced in the Birol Seed Farm, Dinajpur.

9. Table. Foundation seed production of Lentil in Birol
farm, Dinajpur during 2000- 2001.
Pulse Variety Land Yield Yield
crop (acre) (kg) (kg acre-1)
Lentil BARI masur -2 0.40 40.00 100.00
BARI masur -4 1.30 288.00 221.00
Total - 1.70 328.00 -

10. Seed Production Plot of Barimashur-4

11. Table. Target plan of certified seed production of Lentil
during 2001- 2002.
Pulse Variety Land No. of Requi- Certified
crop (acre) farmers red seed
founda- (kg)
tion
seed
Lentil BARImasur- 2 2.5 8 30.00 1000
Lentil BARImasur- 4 23 69 276.00 9000
Total 25.5 77 306.00 10000

12. Development of New Varieties
• BRAC has developed an improved Mungbean variety
through selection from elite germplasms after starting its
research activities on pulse crops during the year 2000-
2001.
• Setting an objective of the development of a short duration
type yellow seeded variety like ‘Sonamoog’ we started our
Mung bean variety development programme.
• A yellow coloured line(YS-1/Holud Moog) was identified
from the different Mungbean accessions through selection.

13. Germplasm Collection & Evaluation of Mung bean

14. Main characteristics of this selected advance
line are:
• Uncommon attractive golden yellow coloured moderate size seed.
• Short duration improved line; determinate with bushy plant type.
• Relatively synchronized fruit ripening, moderate size drum shaped
seed.
• Tolerant to major diseases.
• Insensitive to seasonal influence and can be grown almost throughout
the year.
• Good cooking quality and less turmeric is required for cooking due to
yellow coloured cotyledons (carotene content = 3.32mg/100gm).
• Very thin seed soat & preferred taste.
• Moderate size light green coloured fruits and yield is around 1.5 to 2.0
t/ha.
• Increased seed recovery percentage and market price due to its better
quality.
• Cropping intensity can be increased significantly due to its short
duration.

15. Yellow seed coat-I, Normal green seed coat type &
Yellow seed coat-II

16. Fig. A Plant of
YS-I
(Holud Moog).

17. Table. Mean values of plant characters of Yellow
seed coat-I (Holud Moog)) & BARI moog- 5 grown at
BARDC, Gazipur).
Plant Characters YS-I BARI moog-5
(Holud Moog)
Plant height (cm) 26.00 27.00
Days taken to 1st flowering 31.00 32.00
Days taken to 1st harvesting 47.00 50.00
Total no. of fruits/plant 36.70 21.00
Fruit length (cm) 8.07 9.60
No. of seeds/ fruit 11.66 10.80
100-seed wt. (gm) 4.46 5.80
Harvest index (%) 47.44 39.70
Yield/acre (Kg) 545.00 485.00
Seed recovery (%) 70.00 52.00
Duration (days) 58.00 65.00

18. Different Stages of YS-I Mungbean Line

19. Table. Mean values of plant characters of Yellow seed coat-I
(YS-I) BARI moog- 5 & BINA moog-7 grown at BARDC,
Gazipur(Kh-2’2011).
Days Plant No. No. of No. Total Pod Yield/ Seed Virus
Variety taken hei- of pod of no. length/ ha reco- inci-
to crop ght/ bran clus- pod/ of pod (Kg) very dence
matu- plant - ters/ clus- pods/ (cm) (%) (%)
rity (cm) ches/ plant ter plant
plant
YS-1 62.00 41.18 1.5 4.4 5.4 21.90 7.60 1045.00 65.22 5.43
BARI- 70.00 47.91 1.10 5.0 5.20 21.0 8.50 691.00 38.42 6.06
moog-5
BINA- 74.00 50.25 3.60 7.7 7.10 28.90 6.30 544.00 52.31 17.70
moog-7

21. Table. Determination of Calcium, Iron, Zinc, Magnesium, Potassium,
Sulphur & Boron content in the 3 mung bean varieties.
Ca Mg K S B Zn Fe
Sample
ID
% ppm
YS-1 0.895 0.415 1.345 0.330 23.700 32.940 154.590
BARI 0.940 0.405 1.130 0.380 23.100 30.000 148.140
moog-5
BINA 0.670 0.320 1.015 0.300 24.300 28.050 161.100
moog-7
Remarks - than + than + than -than + than + than + than
BARI both both BARIm BARIm both BARI
moog-5 BARI BARI oog-5 oog-5 BARI moog-5
&+ moog-5 moog-5 & but + - than moog-5 & but –
than & BINA than BINA BINA than
BINA- BINA moog-7 BINA moog-7 moog-7 BINA
moog-7 moog-7 moog-7 moog-7

22. Rapeseed and Mustard
• Of all the edible oil seed crops grown in Bangladesh, Rapeseed &
Mustard ranks first in respect of area under cultivation.
• Although Bangladesh occupies 5th position in the list of Rapeseed &
Mustard producing countries, per hectare yield of oilseeds is very low
compared to that of other countries of the world (Khaleque, 1985).
• Although Bangladesh occupies 5th position in the list of Rapeseed &
Mustard producing countries, per hectare yield of oilseeds is very low
compared to that of other countries of the world (Khaleque, 1985).
• BRAC started the seed production program during the year 2000-
2001.
• During the year 2000-2001 setting a target of 10.5 metric tons of rape
seed, 6.8 metric tons of certified seeds of improved rape seed varieties
were produced in the Magura region.
• Side by side foundation seeds of Tori-7 (Improved), BARI sharisha-8,
BINA sharisha-3, M-27 and BINA sharisha-4 were also produced in
the Seed Production Farm, Birol, Dinajpur

23. Table. Production of Rapeseed (certified seed) of BRAC
during the year 2000-2001.
Name of Land No. of Production Remarks
the (acre) Farmers (kg)
varieties T A T A T A Since all the
varieties were
belong to the B.
napus group
BARI 5 5.46 12 11 2500 1724
shattering
sharisha
problem was
-8
observed during
BINA 10 9.70 37 21 4000 2475 the final
sharisha harvest.
-3
BINA 10 9.90 14 23 4000 2638
sharisha
-4
25 25.06 63 55 10500 6837

24. Table. Production target plan of certified seeds of
Rapeseed & Mustard for
BRAC during 2001-2002.
Crops Name of Source Land No. of Produc-
the (acre) farmers tion
varieties (kg)
Rape Tori-7 BARI 30 90 10,000
seed
M-27 BINA 10 30 4,000
Mustard Pucca BADC 6 18 2,000
Rai
Total 46 138 16,000

25. Groundnut
• Groundnut is also an important oil seed crop grown in
different parts of Bangladesh particularly in the Char
areas and mainly cultivated under rain fed conditions.
• Groundnut however, can be cultivated with very low
inputs and it can also be grown in both the Kharif and
Rabi season as well.
• Since improved high yielding variety of Groundnut can
increase the production significantly there is also a good
prospect of large seeded high yielding good quality variety
of Groundnut in Bangladesh.

26. White Testa Colour (WTC) Groundnut
A White Testa Colour (WTC)
Groundnut variant was
identified through ground nut
improvement programme.
Characteristics
• Variant was found to be true
breeding.
• Normal looking erect type
plants.
• Moderate plant height, good
vigour, good fruiting (no. of
fruits/plant-30-32).
• Fruits had white testa coloured
seed, fruits were either 3 or 4
seeded.
• Seeds were intermediate size
and were flattened round
shaped.
• Yield/acre -1100 -1200 Kg.

27. Chinese Groundnut
Characteristics
• High yielding improved type large seeded variety.
• Robust type bushy plant with moderate plant
height and excellent vigour.
• Large size leaves, flowers & fruits.
• Fruits are however, 2-seeded hence the seeds are
also larger size.
• Near about 100 gm of fruits can be harvested
from a single plant while seed yield/plant is 70-80
gm.
• Hundred seed wt. is around 70-80 gm while in the
local type it is only 45-50 gm.
• Free from major diseases and attack of insect
pests is almost nil.
• More than 3 tons/ha yield can be obtained from
this variety.

28. Table. Studies on the morphological characters of local and exotic
materials of Groundnut.
Name of the variety Plant Total no. Fruit 100-seed Seed Yield
height of length/ weight yield/ (t ha-1)
(cm) fruits/plant fruit (g) plant
(cm) (g)
China-1 69 44 3.83 74.2 27.1 3.76
Local 114 32 2.86 45.3 20.8 1.51
DG-2 80 49 3.14 49.3 24.5 2.00
Jhinga badam 132 43 3.31 48.6 24.3 2.21
Mean values of 109 42 3.10 47.7 23.3 1.90
3 indigenous
varieties
% increased or -59 6.3 23.55 55.7 16.6 97.89
decreased over
indigenous
varieties

30. Field of Chinese Ground nut

31. Fruits of Chinese Ground nut Variety

32. Fruits of Chinese & Local
Ground nut Varieties

33. Seeds of Chinese Ground nut

34. Sunflower
• Sunflower is another important oil crop grown all
over the world for its good quality edible oil
source extracting from its seed.
• This crop is characterized by its large showy
flower and has huge number of seeds which
contain 44-45% of edible oil.
• Unlike erucic acid in rapeseed, it has linolenic acid
as an important constituent of sunflower oil.
• This linolenic acid is beneficial for human health
and for this reason the popularity of sunflower is
increasing day by day in Bangladesh in recent
times.

35. Contd.
• Since it is a photo insensitive and widely adapted
crop, sunflower may be a promising oil crop in
Bangladesh.
• Since sunflower is relatively a new oil crop in
Bangladesh, it is not widely cultivated as oil crop
despite of its immense possibilities.
• Hybrid sunflower variety with bird damage
tolerant characteristics might be major
breakthrough for it’s commercial cultivation.
• Sunflower requires not as much of irrigation and
can also be cultivated in the coastal areas since it
can tolerate moderate degree of salinity
throughout the growing period.

36. BRAC Activities on Sunflower
• Considering the importance of sunflower as a promising oil
crop in Bangladesh, BRAC has started sunflower variety
screening program during the year 2001-2002.
• On the basis of our observation we used to recommend the
suitable variety/varieties to purchase good quality seeds
from the reputed companies of the respective variety/
varieties to distribute seeds to the sunflower growers.
• Since it is a continuous process every year BRAC is
conducting the variety screening trials regularly before
purchasing seed.
• One of its part of variety screening program, 2 newly
introduced hybrid varieties namely ‘Aguara-4’ and
‘Hysun-33’ received from Advanta Seed Company and
were evaluated during 2010-2011 along with 1 local OP
variety ‘Kironi’ for agronomic performances.

37. Table. Flowering performance and yield of three sunflower
varieties.
Varieties Plant Days Crop Head Seed Yield Remarks
height at taken to dura- dia- yield/ (kg
final complete tion meter plant acre-1)
harvest flowe- (days) (cm) (g)
(cm) ring
Kironi 167 79 112 15.3 34 645 Yield of
Hysun-33 was
Aguara-4 153 84 119 16.8 44 616 2.63%
than Kironi &
7.46% higher
Hysun-33 149 92 117 21.2 82 662 than
Aguara-4.

38. Trial Plots of Hybrid Sunflower Varieties

39. Trial plot of ‘Kironi’

40. Dissemination Activities with Pulses
and Oil Seed Crops
• One of the major agricultural activities of BRAC
Agriculture programme is to disseminate the mature and
productive agricultural technologies to the farmers’ field
through large scale farmer’s participatory demonstration.
• Recently BRAC initiated agricultural technology
dissemination in the cyclone prone coastal region of
Bangladesh with pulses and oil seed crops.
• Sunflower (Hysun-33) was introduced as a field crop in the
coastal regions of Bangladesh in rabi season.
• It was grown by the BRAC project beneficiary farmers of
Barguna, Patuakhali, Jhalokhati, Pirojpur, Satkhira,
Bagerhat, and Khulna districts during 2010-2011 Rabi
season.

41. Contd.
Yield and plant characteristics of sunflower (Hysun-33) in the
farmers’ field of the coastal regions of Bangladesh during
Rabi 2010-2011.
Yield and plant character
1000
Flower % of
District Population Seed/ seed Yield
diameter filled
(plant m-2) flower weight (t ha-1)
(cm) grains
(g)
Barguna 3.39 23.3 1413 94.3 68.1 2.9
Patuakhali 3.70 21.6 1291 95.6 68.5 3.1
Jhalokathi 4.02 20.2 1282 99.0 66.3 3.2
Pirojpur 3.68 19.5 912 98.7 57.8 3.2
Satkhira 3.26 17.0 1453 87.5 64.0 3.1
Bagerhat 2.13 26.4 1544 87.7 59.4 2.6
Khulna 3.16 21.1 1174 96.3 76.0 4.2
Average 3.33 21.3 1296 93.0 65.7 3.2

42. Table. Area and yield of Mungbean, Kheshari and Sesame crops cultivated
by the farmers in the coastal regions of Bangladesh in Boro/Rabi season 2010-
11.
Mungbean Kheshari Sesame
Land Yield Land Yield Land Yield
District (ha) (t ha-1) (ha) (t ha-1) (ha) (t ha-1)
Barguna 5568 1.23 634 1.37 138 1.48
Patuakhali 3121 1.10 858 1.22 - -
Jhalokathi 853 1.08 1050 1.41 237 1.13
Pirojpur 364 1.17 2569 1.12 - -
Satkhira - - 1060 1.31 - -
Bagerhat 540 1.05 - - - -
Khulna 1065 1.54 487 1.18 97 1.20
Total/ 11,5,11 1.20 6,6,58 1.27 4,72 1.27
Average

43. Future Strategies on Pulses and
Oilseed Crops
• BRAC will continue its effort in identifying as well as in
the development of new improved varieties of pulses and
oilseed crops in Bangladesh to ensure the sustainability of
its agriculture.
• Major thrust will be given to develop early maturing
varieties with higher yield potentiality and nutritional
quality, disease and pest resistance with moderate to highly
tolerant to the biotic and abiotic stresses.
• Introduction of high value non-rice crops in the cropping
system to increase farm profitability will get preference in
preparing research plan of BRAC.
• BRAC will continue its effort to produce and disseminate
the good quality seeds of pulses and oil seed crops and also
will disseminate production technologies of pulses as well
as oil seed crops to the farmers’ field in the coming years
to increase the production of pulses and oilseeds in
Bangladesh.