Lentils: A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the post-graduate Diploma in Agricultural Science in the University of Canterbury

Abstract

Lentil is believed to be one of the first plants brought under cultivation (Youngman, 1968). In man's quest for food, lentil was associated with the start of the agricultural 'revolution' in the old world which initiated the domestication of several crops like wheat, barley, pea and lentil (Zohary, 1976). Carbonised lentil seeds have been identified from early farming villages in the Near East (dated 7th and 6th millennia B.C.). Larger amounts of seeds were also discovered in somewhat later phases of the Neolithic Settlement in the Near East which were believed to be associated with the spread of agriculture to Greece and adjacent Bulgaria. Lentil was reported to have been discovered in Poland in sites dating from the Iron Age (Szafer, 1966 cited by Youngman, 1968). Therefore, it is evident that lentil ranks among the oldest and the most accepted grain legumes of the old world, originating in the Mediterranean region, domesticated in the Near East (Fig. 1) and subsequently spreading the world over. It has been used for both human consumption, animal feed and continues to be important food plants to thousands in Eurasia from the past few centuries.