WA needs to shift its focus to pulses to supply a growing world demand and take advantage of good prices in a flat cereals market, warns University of WA's Institute of Agriculture director Kadambot Siddique.
Professor Siddique, who has spent his career working internationally in pulse research and production, is highlighting a worldwide gap between consumer demand and farm production for pulses.
"If you look at the total production of cereals in the world it has been going dramatically up," he said.
"The reason behind this is there has been a lot of investment and demand for cereals when compared with pulses, but the pulse production has been stagnant but marginally going up."
In an environment where consumers are turning to healthy legume options, and climate change is transforming where and what can be farmed, Professor Siddique said growers could change and fuel a market need.
He said there was the added benefit of growing legumes in a cropping rotation that would allow cereal and legume cropping to go hand-in-hand.
"Because pulses have the bacteria in the root, they fix the nitrogen, they produce their own nitrogen and the rest is left for the soil which we can mine with a cereal crop," he said.
"If you look at the carbon emission balance, pulses are generally favourable compared with wheat, canola and other cereals because you need to put a lot of nitrogen into the soil artificially.
"The pulses also have the ability to mine phosphorous in the soil which is an added bonus."
Professor Siddique's passion was recognised by his international peers when he was named the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation special ambassador for pulses as part of the 2016 International Year of Pulses.
He received his special ambassador designation on April 18 at the international conference on Pulses for Health, Nutrition and Sustainable Agriculture in Drylands in Marrakesh, Morocco.
His insight into pulses in other markets highlights the lack of focus in WA, said Professor Siddique, which is disappointing considering WA's ideal climate and location for export.
"A country like India is a major pulse producer of 80-90 million tonnes per annum, but they have a drought and an over-emphasis on cereals," he said.
"They also have increased consumption, particularly with vegetarians, so the price of chickpeas and lentils are skyrocketing.
"Globally there is demand but the per capita availability has declined because of the lack of production.
"Australia is a great success pulse story as within the past 30 years we have gone from nothing to having large production in NSW and Queensland.
"Unfortunately WA needs more emphasis on pulses because we have lupins and that has its own program, but the other pulses since the 1990s haven't really moved forward."
Professor Siddique said disease issues with several varieties in the 1990s deterred growers from pulses, and there was little awareness of new varieties and pest controls.
"WA needs a focused action plan with the farming groups and it is easy to start growing as a lot of the technology is available," he said.
"In terms of planting times, spraying, storage, harvesting and so on, all those things have been done and documented so what is stopping us going forward?"
Part of Professor Siddique's role for 2016 is to raise awareness of pulse production and its contribution to a sustainable cropping system and to food and nutritional security on a global scale
At the Morocco event, he led a declaration for all delegates which highlighted that research and development in pulses was at "low and unstable" levels.
It stated that a global survey showed about $US175 million ($238m) per annum was spent on the 13 pulse crops' research and development compared to billions invested in cereal crops.
Key recommendations included a goal of increasing global pulse production by 20 per cent by 2030 and an urgent need to build capacity and educate the next generation of researchers, consultants and industry representatives on the value and importance of pulses.
Professor Siddique said it was up to the delegates from each country to champion the cause and he hoped to do so in WA as well as drive the international approach through his ambassador role.
"The chickpea industry has expanded nicely in NSW and Queensland, but if they get a drought that will fall back," he said.
"In the southern parts of Australia in South Australia, Victoria and WA, the adoption has slowed down since outbreaks of disease but was sorted out following a decade of investment, but now we've got a shortage.
"I'm happy to mentor ... there's a lot of new, young consultants and growers in the State and they're not all aware of what's available.
"If we have a message and co-ordinated approach it will raise the awareness to the funding bodies of interest in the area, because a lot of them are still investing in cereals.
"The question everyone asks me is why are we not growing more pulses in WA?"
UWA is holding its 2016 postgraduate showcase focusing on agriculture next month, which will feature speakers on a range of topics including the benefits of break crops, dealing with fly-blown sheep and the hydrology of dynamic water repellant soils.
The event is being held on Wednesday, June 8, from 1-5.30pm in the Bayliss Lecture Theatre.
