When it comes to pulses, few people understand their potential as deeply as Professor William Erskine. A plant breeder, pulse expert, and long-time champion of food security, Erskine has spent decades working across continents to improve the performance and resilience of these vital crops.
When it comes to pulses, few people understand their potential as deeply as Professor William Erskine. A plant breeder, pulse expert, and long-time champion of food security, Erskine has spent decades working across continents to improve the performance and resilience of these vital crops.
In this interview, conducted by artist Vivienne Schadinsky as part of her research for the exhibition Into the Seeds of Time, Erskine shares why pulses matter more than ever, and what it takes to help them thrive in a changing world.
An academic-turned-agricultural adventurer, Erskine recalls the moment his journey began: a seminar on cocoa breeding that sparked a career taking him from Papua New Guinea to Nepal to Syria. With humour, humility, and deep expertise, he reveals how lentils, one of the least glamorous, yet most essential crops, became the focus of his scientific life.
Through breeding programs, seed collections, and rugged fieldwork, he helped bring better varieties of beans and lentils to farming communities across the Global South. His work would go on to seed entire national industries, including Australia’s now-thriving lentil sector.
But this film is more than a personal history. It’s a powerful reminder of how food, nature, and culture intertwine, and how small seeds can drive big change.
Here are some of the key takeaways from the conversation:
Why Pulses Can’t Be Treated as One-Size-Fits-All
Erskine makes it clear from the start: not all pulses are created equal. Each species has unique characteristics, different roles in farming systems, and distinct responses to the environments where they’re grown. Unlike crops like soybeans that have seen intensive investment and uniform breeding programs, many pulses are still operating with a limited genetic base and underfunded research pipelines. That means the key to unlocking their potential is tailored, systems-aware breeding, strategies that consider everything from soil conditions to farmer knowledge to local climate patterns.
The Lentil Lesson: South Asia’s Quiet Pulse Revolution
One of the most compelling stories Erskine tells is from South Asia, where lentils, once stuck with a narrow genetic base, have undergone a dramatic transformation. Through coordinated breeding programs across India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, new lentil varieties were introduced with better disease resistance and broader genetic diversity. The result? Yield gains of 20–50% in some areas, improved food security, and a meaningful reduction in lentil imports. This wasn’t just a technical win: it was a model of collaborative science, regional coordination, and responsiveness to farmers’ real-world challenges.
Pulses, Nature, and the Art of Fixing Nitrogen
Pulses are famous for their ability to fix nitrogen, pulling it from the air and enriching soils without synthetic fertilizers. But as Erskine emphasises, this trait varies widely between species. While faba beans and lupins are nitrogen-fixing champs, common beans struggle, especially when soils already contain high nitrogen levels. In short, nature doesn’t reward redundancy: if the soil has enough nitrogen, pulses won’t bother fixing more. This kind of nuanced understanding is vital for breeding programs aiming to make agriculture more sustainable, especially under mounting climate pressures.
The Wild Relatives Holding Secrets to Resilience
As climates shift and stressors intensify, breeders need new traits, and those often lie hidden in wild relatives of cultivated pulses. These hardy cousins have evolved under harsher conditions and carry genes that help withstand drought, heat, salinity, and disease. But there's a catch: many of these wild species are under threat, and the race is on to collect and conserve them before they vanish. Erskine highlights recent international collaborations that have made big strides in gathering and safeguarding wild chickpea varieties, a critical resource for breeding climate-resilient crops.
Seeds in Storage: Safeguarding the Genetic Future
Of course, collecting seeds is just the beginning. Preserving them is another battle entirely. Seed banks around the world face risks from fire, pests, and wars. Erskine recounted losses in conflict zones like Afghanistan and stressed the importance of global backup facilities, such as the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway. These cold, quiet vaults hold the genetic keys to future food security, but they require ongoing support and investment.
Farmers, Feet, and Field Wisdom
Beyond genes and labs, Erskine reminds us that farmers are some of the world’s most intuitive agronomists. In Nepal, for instance, farmers know exactly when to sow lentils by the feel of the soil under their bare feet after the rice harvest. It’s a simple but profound example of how local knowledge complements scientific innovation, and why engaging farmers directly in breeding efforts is critical.
Looking Ahead: Pulses as Engines of Sustainable Agriculture
Erskine’s vision for the future of pulses is one of diversity, resilience, and partnership. From boosting nutrition and income to regenerating soil and cutting emissions, pulses are uniquely positioned to serve multiple goals at once, but only if we invest in smart breeding, seed conservation, and local capacity-building.
“Pulses are not just protein,” Erskine says. “They’re part of the solution to how we feed the world sustainably.”