There's a 20-hour power-cut in his lab and Subhajit Datta is trying hard to take it in his stride. For, this 34-year-old scientist at the Government-run Indian Institute of Pulses Research in Kanpur has perhaps one of the toughest jobs in his field: he heads a biotechnology programme to increase the yield of pulses stubbornly stuck in the 500-595 kg/hectare range for more than 20 years.

To put this in perspective, India today has the world’s largest area under pulse cultivation, 22 million hectares, but ranks 138th on the yield index.

So while the government released figures last week congratulating itself on record pulse production of 15.19 million tonnes, what it didn’t mention was that this falls short — as it does each year — of the demand of 17 million tonnes, a demand outpacing supply by almost two million tonnes each year.

Result: retail prices are up almost 30% in the last year forcing many households to cut down on pulse consumption, the only source of protein for many. And making pulse prices the first one to be quoted by political parties beating the inflation drum.

All eyes are on IIPR in the hope the lab may do what policy hasn’t: break the stagnant pulse yield with new varieties.

Datta doesn’t say it but that’s a tall order. For one, the daily power-cuts stall experiments that involve precise temperature and environment settings in which each plant, grown via tissue culture, has to be grafted onto a slightly older plant with stronger roots in a containment facility.

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