Agriculture is both a victim of climate change and a contributor to it. In India, the sector accounts for 16 per cent of the total greenhouse gas emissions, much of it stemming from the input-intensive rice-wheat systems, promoted after the Green Revolution in the 1960s. Excessive use of nitrogen fertiliser is a chief culprit: estimates show that three-quarters of nitrogen-related emissions originate in agriculture, largely in the form of nitrous oxide (N2O), released through denitrification of applied fertilisers. Flooded paddy fields emit methane, another greenhouse gas. Such cereal-based monocropping also imposes a heavy environ mental toll, degrading soil health, depleting groundwater, polluting ecosystems and eroding biodiversity. Escaping this damaging cycle is not as difficult as it seems and could be achieved simply by encouraging the cultivation of legumes.
Leguminous crops, including chickpea (chana), groundnut, soya bean and lentils such as pigeon pea (tur), have a unique biological capacity to fix atmospheric nitrogen in the soil, reducing the need for nitrogen fertiliser and, in turn, N2O emissions. A meta-analysis published in Agricultural Economics Research Review in 2023 shows that legumes fix about 70 kg of nitrogen per ha, equivalent to 152 kg of urea. This natural fertilisation supports sustainable plant growth and soil fertility, while improving the availability of other macronutrients. The study says soils under legume crops show more than 11 per cent higher NPK (nitrogen, phophorous and potassium) availability and 16-17 per cent greater carbon seque stration than cereal monocultures. Legumes also require 25 per cent less irrigation water than non-legume crops. If these benefits are valued economically as ecosystem services, legumes’ ecological contri bution may amount to Rs 15,000 per hectare, the study estimates.
India, however, has not fully exploited this potential. Data with the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, a Mumbai-based business information company, show that legumes occupy only 21 per cent of the cropped area, with yield rising from 12 million tonnes in 1966-67 to just over 52 million tonnes in 2024-25; pulses account for about half this volume. By contrast, cereals dominate nearly half the cropped area and have seen a sharper rise in yield—from less than 66 million tonnes to 330 million tonnes over the same period.
This imbalance reflects a long-standing policy bias dating back to the Green Revolution, when rice and wheat drove advances in technology and finance, including irrigation, improved seeds, fertiliser subsidies and minimum support prices. Markets, too, have favoured cereals, while legumes have suffered from weak procurement and poor logistics. The result is...
This article was originally published in the May 16-31, 2026 print edition of Down To Earth