Introduction Botanical Name: Vigna mungo Family: Leguminoseae. Vigna mungo is an important pulse crop grown throughout India. It is grown in an area of about three million hectares in India. Annual production of urdbean in India is about 1.3 million tonnes. It is mainly used as 'dal' and in preparation of many dishes in our diet. In southern parts of the country, it is used in preparation of some special dishes. It is very rich in protein containing about 25 per cent protein in its seed and is the richest in phosphoric acid among pulses. Besides, this green fodder of urdbean is very nutritive and is specially useful for milch cattle. It can also be used as green manure. It also acts as cover crop and its deep root system protects the soil from erosion. Urdbean being leguminous has the capacity to fix atmospheric nitrogen and thus helps in restoring the soil fertility.

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Origin And Spread Urd or black gram is a native of India and originated from Phaseolus sublobatus, a wild plant. There is a mention of urd in vedic texts such as Kautilya's Arthasasthra' and 'Charak Samhita'. From India it spreads to many countries like African, European, American and Asian countries. It has become a popular pulse crop in Pakistan, India, Bangldesh, Burma, Ceylon, and most of the African countries. In India, blackgram is very popularly grown in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Maharastra, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, Punjab, Haryana and Karnataka.

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Area and Production Districtwise Area, Production & Productivity of Blackgram in Andhra Pradesh 2003-04 District Area in Hectares Production in tonnes Yield in Kg/ha 1 2 3 4 Srikakulam 41092 20058 488 Vizianagaram 13661 4840 354 Visakhapatnam 7123 3491 490 East Godavari 53200 19290 363 West Godavari 13060 5280 404 Krishna 108893 43966 404 Guntur 67204 18114 270 Prakasham 16463 13931 846 Nellore 16238 5079 313 Chittoor 662 356 537 Cuddapah 71 30 422 Ananthapur 82 51 616 Kurnool 2537 1345 530 Mahaboobnagar 3744 2688 718 Rangareddy 9391 5090 542 Medak 26210 22147 845 Nizamabad 16574 10599 640 Adilabad 25035 16395 655 Karimnagar 981 407 415 Warangal 2705 1110 410 Khammam 8066 3552 440 Nalgonda 5540 2344 423 State 438532 200163 456 Source: Season and Crop Report, Govt of Andhrapradesh Area, Productivity and Production of Black Gram in Andhra Pradesh Year Area in lakh hectares Productivity in Kgs/hect Production in lakh tonnes 1 2 3 4 1999-2000 4.61 640 2.95 2000-2001 5.55 704 3.91 2001-2002 6.27 611 3.83 2002-2003 6.95 541 3.76 2003-2004 4.38 456 2.00 Average of preceding 5 years (1998-99 to 2002-2003) 5.54 621 3.41 Source: Season and Crop Report, Govt of Andhrapradesh

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