In this guest post, Hakan Bahceci, CEO of Hakan Foods and Former Global Pulse Confederation President, explains why everyone should be talking about pulses in 2016.

An ancient group of crops is being reborn. 2016 has been declared the International Year of Pulses, and will celebrate the humble beans, peas, lentils and chickpeas that despite being part of one of the oldest crop groups to be farmed, have fallen out of fashion in some parts of the world and become marginalised in agricultural and development policies

For the last five years, poor monsoons have impacted pulse production. In addition, El Niño and other climate change impacts, subsidies on cereals over pulses, and lack of research budgets, have all taken their toll.

Yet pulses can be a major weapon in the fight against many of the most urgent challenges the global population faces, from malnutrition and hunger, to climate change, water scarcity and land degradation.  Continue reading →