Lentils

详情

Masur or lentil is a bushy, annual shrub plant that is popular for its lens shaped seeds, which are consumed as food in stew or other forms all over the world. These seeds have a vast range of colors from yellow to red-orange to green, brown and black and also have second highest levels of proteins and fiber after soybeans. The thin lentil plant, which is named ‘Lens culinaris’ botanically, comes from the legume family and gains a height of *2 to *4 inches at maturity. The tap root system of the plant usually grows to a depth of around *5 inches that makes it a moderately drought resistant shrub. Also possessing white to pale blue flowers, lentils are often considered a cousin of bean. Lentils are also important as they indulge in the nitrogen fixation process that helps the soil revive its nitrogen content.

Lentil is the oldest food legume that has been known to the mankind. The nutritious value of the seeds of the plant is quite high as it is rich in carbohydrates, fibers and proteins and that is why lentil is so popular among the vegetarian population of the world. It also acts as an important secondary crop in the crop rotation schedule as it has been proven that masur crop is extremely good in fixing nitrogen from the atmosphere and forming nitrogen nodules in the soil that rejuvenates the nutrients and keeps the soil productive for a long time. Regarding the production of this legume grain crop, it is considered that lentil does not contribute much in the world’s total production of pulses as production of other pulses including dry edible beans and field beans is much higher than this crop. The country that dominate the largest lentil producer’s list is Canada followed by India having a mammoth share in the world production of around *0 lakh tons annually. This production figure has been almost stable during the last decade. Most of the lentil’s demand arises from the food sector. The southeastern Asian countries where majority of the population is vegetarian, holds a large share of the world’s total consumption.