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Top: Souk trader looking at his len ls. Le : Alberta team breaks len l bread with delegates from other countries. Right: Len l bread, chicken tagine and olives. Dr. Bunyamin Tar'an, Dr. Steve Shirtliffe, Dr. Rosalind Bueckert, Dr. Kirs n Be and Dr. Tom Warken n, as well as Dr. Stan Blade, Dean of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Alberta. APG Research Officer Dr. Jagroop Gill Kahlon was invited to present a research talk at the pea workshop during IFLRC about disease tolerance in peas. She was immensely impressed with the plethora of research and newer technologies being u lized in pulse crops. "A ending such events gives you a very different perspec ve on problems related to produc on and marke ng of pulses and such an interna onal pla orm gives one the opportunity to think outside the box," she explained. "Although grown in such different agroclima c zones and bred for such different end uses, pulses have essen ally the same problems, such as coping with abio c and bio c stresses and breeding for tolerance against such stresses. Research work updates from all over the world reinforces one's beliefs in pulse crops and the direc on taken by pulse growers of trying to find newer end uses and markets for our pulses." She gave the example of Dr. Colin Douglas from the Queensland Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) who informed on the tripled produc on and export of mung beans and the crea on of the interna onal mung bean improvement network for coherent mung bean research. Meanwhile, Dr. Petr Smykal, professor Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Palacký University in Olomouc, Czech Republic, is looking at ways of breeding pea with its wild rela ves to bring in some of the desired characteris cs like tolerance to diseases back to the pea genome without having to compromise the yield a ributes. Dr. Kadambot Siddique, University of Western Australia, talked about genotypic varia on in phosphorus use efficiency among chickpea germplasms and how Australia is working on ways to harness them. Dr. Rebecca McGhee from Washington State University talked about opportuni es around direct seeding of winter pulses and some recent findings of higher yield of the winter peas from the experiments at the Pullman, Washington campus in comparison to spring pulses. Pulses are an important component of Moroccan diet, Gill Kahlon noted on her journey. Beans, peas and len ls are o en used in staple cuisines. Delegates enjoyed pulses in salads, main dishes and breads. Local markets, called souks, have various len ls available for purchase and add a lot of colour and texture to the dominant olive and dates scenery. The 8th IFLRC is scheduled to be held in 2022 in Kenya. To learn more about the conference, visit www.legvalue.eu/news-and- events/events/iflrc-2018-interna onal- food-legume-research-conference. Pulses are an important component of the Moroccan diet. Beans, peas and lentils are often used in staple cuisines. P U L S E C R O P N E W S S U M M E R 2 0 1 8 | 1 3

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