DESCRIPTION

Lentil ( Lens culinaris Medik.) is one of the first, if not the very first, domesticated grain crop. If the beginning of agriculture define humanities transition from wandering hunter-gatherers to members of a civilization, then lentil shares credit with only a few other species for making this transition possible. Archeologists found carbonized remains of lentil seed along with einkorn, emmer, and barley; suggesting that rotation with cereals was a feature of agricultural systems from the very beginning of early agriculture. The domestication of lentil and the development of agriculture made it possible for humans to become sedentary and turn from hunt and gathering to agricultural production.

World Production

• Worldwide 5,734,201 tonnes of lentils is produced per year.
• Canada is the largest lentils producer in the world with 2,166,900 tonnes production per year.
• India comes second with 1,227,820 tonnes yearly production.
• Canada and India produce together more than 50 % of world’s total lentils .
• With 533,755 tonnes of production per year, Australia is the third largest producer of lentils .
• United States of America, with 244,400 tonnes of production per year is ranked at 6.

World Lentil Production by Country

	Country	Production (Tons)	Production per Person (Kg)	Acreage (Hectare)	Yield (Kg / Hectare)
	Canada	2,166,900	58.229	1,488,600	1,455.7
	India	1,227,820	0.919	1,362,720	901
	Australia	533,755	21.308	360,120	1,482.2
	Turkey	353,631	4.376	281,741	1,255.2
	Nepal	251,185	8.597	208,766	1,203.2
	United States of America	244,400	0.746	174,420	1,401.2
	Bangladesh	175,384	1.062	142,418	1,231.5
	China	164,239	0.118	65,901	2,492.2
	Ethiopia	119,329	1.11	87,444	1,364.6
	Russian Federation	116,618	0.794	129,787	898.5
	Syria	100,653	5.505	113,643	885.7