Which pulse crop is India a major producer of?

✅Explanation: India is the largest producer of pigeonpea (red gram) globally. The crop is primarily grown in states like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh, and it plays an essential role in the country's agriculture, both as a food crop and for soil enrichment due to its nitrogen-fixing properties.

🔑Key Points:
-Pigeonpea (Arhar) is commonly known as red gram or tur.
-Botanical Name – Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp
-It is mainly eaten in the form of the split pulse as ‘dal’.
-Seeds of arhar are also rich in iron, iodine, essential amino acids like lycine, threonine, cystine, and arginine, etc.
-It is predominantly a crop of tropical areas mainly cultivated in semi-arid regions of India
-It is very sensitive to low radiation at pod development, therefore flowering during the monsoon and cloudy weather leads to poor pod formation.
-It is successfully grown in black cotton soils, well-drained with a pH ranging from 7.0-8.5.
-It responds well to properly tilled and well-drained seedbeds.
-Three systems of sowings are practiced for pigeon pea. The common is flat sowing, the other methods are broad bed-furrow (BBF) for the extra-early group and ridge-and-furrow for the late maturity group.
-The seeding rate of pigeon pea depends on the desired plant density for a genotype (early, medium, or late), cropping system (pure crop, mixed crop, or intercrop), the germination rate of seed, and mass of seed.