Black gram and green gram are important legume crops in India and Myanmar. The largest producer of black gram and green gram is India but it does not meet domestic consumption. The study was conducted with time series data from the year 1970 to 2019 in order to work out the growth patterns in area, production, productivity, export and import of black gram and green gram. CAGR and instability was calculated in order to better understand fluctuations of black gram and green gram year by year. Area and production increased in both countries from the year 1970-71 to 2018-19. However, the yield of black gram and green gram was stagnant in India which was over 500 kg/ha in 2018-19 whereas the yield in Myanmar was more than 1000 kg/ha during the same period. The yield gap between India and Myanmar was about 800 kg/ha. With a growing population and often unfavorable seasonal conditions, the country's production regularly fell short of consumption needs requiring it to import large quantities of pulses. Cropping patterns like rice-pulses, intercropping with other crops and HYV can improve productivity and expand pulse areas in India. India is the largest importer of black gram and has greater bargaining power to dominate the black gram market in Myanmar. Trade agreement is needed to overcome the risks of price fluctuation between the two countries.

Background: Although India has always been the greatest producer of pulses, the Indian trade deficit in pulses has transformed several nations into important producers and exporters. Myanmar, with a prevalence of small farms mainly producing chickpea, pigeonpea, mungbean and urdbean, has risen as a major producer of pulses destined for export. Methods: The data were collected for the time period 1970-2019 to work out trends in area, production and productivity of pulses for both countries. Similarly, data on the pulses trade for the period 1988 to 2019 was also collected for India and Myanmar to analyze growth of export and import of pulses. The outcome of the results are classified in two ways; growth rate (CAGR) and instability (CV%). Result: Growth rate of pulses in India was found highest in period-V (2.45% in area, 3.83% in production and 1.4% in yield) whereas the growth rate of pulses in Myanmar was observed highest in period-III (10.9% in area, 12.93% in production). Myanmar’s instability of pulses was found than India’s in all decades except 2010-19. In case of export-import scenario, India’s pulses import ranked first in the world due to meet the demand of increasing population.

Chickpea is an important legume crop in India and Myanmar. Production remained stagnant in both countries until 2000 (Period-I, II, and III) and increased late after 2010 (Period-IV and V). The highest productivity was recorded in 2018-19 (1041 kg/ha in India and 1478 kg/ha in Myanmar). The growth rate of chickpea in India was found to be the highest in period-IV (4.32% in area, 5.99% in production and 1.60% in yield). Similarly, the growth rate of chickpea in Myanmar was the highest in the period-IV (7.57% in area, 13.59% in production, and 5.60% in yield) due to promotion of export markets, favorable prices in the domestic market and partly due to research and development in Department of Agricultural Research (DAR). Myanmar’s instability performance was higher than that of India in all decades except 2010-19. In the case of the import-export scenario, India is now producing sufficiently in domestic production while s, till the chickpea imports, are for processing and value-added products. Myanmar has exported chickpea to the rest of the world especially India (80%), Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates. The growth rate of chickpea exports in India increased in the period 1988-2008 (79.33% in terms of quantity and 94.14% in terms of value) as the growth rate of imports was also increasing in the same period (15.97% in terms of quantity and 21.88% in terms of value). The growth rate of chickpea exports in Myanmar showed a decrease in all periods (-4.4%, - 0.52% and -4.95%).