MORDEN, Man. – A new pulse crop may be creeping into the brown soil zone, if it can overcome its dangerous reputation.
Grass peas will yield as well or better than established field pea varieties with less moisture, making them more suitable for brown soils than most pulses. The grass pea fixes nitrogen throughout its growth cycle while its field pea cousin stops at the flowering stage.
As well, grass peas contain digestible protein ranging from 25 to 35 percent. They are rich in iron and B vitamins and are attractive as an animal feed product.
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But the peas have had a tough time living down their troubled past. The original varieties, with higher levels of a neurotoxin called B-N-oxalyl-L-2-3-diaminopropionic acid or ODAP, caused permanent paralysis in some people who ate large quantities.
In fact, the crop was banned in India nearly 40 years ago.
More closely related to sweet peas of the common garden than to field peas, lathyrus, also known as the grass pea, is a cropping staple in much of the Third World. Known for its hardy root structure, drought and flood tolerances, the pea is generally grown opposite rice as a winter rotation.
Despite the ban in India, grass peas continue to be grown there because of the crop’s nutritional qualities and drought resistance. In times of severe drought the original pea was ground and eaten, without having been rinsed or cooked.
Problem concentrated
“They wouldn’t have any extra water for cooking, so the pea, now constituting a majority of the diet, would be made into a raw paste ball and eaten,” said Clayton Campbell, a grass pea breeder who is developing new varieties.
He said through that method, people were eating the peas with the highest rates of the neurotoxin present and in a way that most effectively poisoned their bodies.
The Morden Agriculture Canada Research Centre is home to grass pea research and the first in North America to have developed a group of varieties that contain from .01 to .04 percent ODAP. Original types contained as much as 2.5 percent ODAP.
The new varieties have been tested as swine feed in Brandon, Man. and after a diet, of only lathyrus the finished hogs were slaughtered, autopsied and showed no traces of the neurotoxin, said researchers.
“The crop is now no more dangerous than flax or rapeseed. These crops have ingredients that if taken in high enough dosages will cause serious health issues as well. It is just that it is new and held up to very high scrutiny,” said Campbell.
More than 20 seed growers are increasing the variety across the Prairies and hopes are that within three years the seed will be growing in fields where pulses in rotation would never have been considered before.
