Australian pulse growers are set to reap a windfall harvest this year, with weather forecasts predicting ideal conditions for grain crops to ripen and the national crop on track for a record-breaking 4,000 tonnes.

Mostly known as legumes in Australia, globally this group of grains includes chickpeas, lentils, lupins, field peas and faba and mung beans, and are commonly called pulses.

The Food and Agriculture section of the United Nations deems them to be so important to the future of the planet it has declared this year the International Year of Pulses.

And as if to celebrate, the harvest will be worth possibly more than $2 billion — twice the monetary value of last year's crop.

It is also a six-fold increase in value in the past decade. Pulses may not be big on the Australian diet — nutritionists estimate that only one in 20 of us eat enough of them — but for countries such as India these ancient grains are a traditional staple.

With its predominantly vegetarian population, India accounts for more than 70 per cent of Australia's chickpea exports.

"Australia is exporting currently these products in large scale, including red lentils back to India," said Vincent Sequeira, who owns a specialist Indian grocery store in Melbourne.

"And in India, without pulses there's no other proper food."

Bumper season could be game-changer

Like Australia, the Indian sub-continent has just endured two years of poor harvests. While the monsoonal rains are shaping to be better this year, grains shortages have made pulses a hot commodity globally.

Australians growers are fielding calls daily from grains traders eager to secure forward stocks. A National Australia Bank report estimated domestic production of lentils would surge this season by around 70 per cent, field peas by about 50 per cent and chickpeas by around one third.

Growers say pulses will be "one of the big food trends worldwide". ( ABC News: Tim Lee )

"So this is a significant jump in production and we're certainly looking in terms of farm gate value well north of $2 billion — around $2.5 billion in production," said Peter Wilson of Pulse Australia.

"It's about a billion-dollar larger crop expectation, potential, than last year."

Some growers have secured potentially lucrative forward contracts.

"Prices have exceeded $1,200 a tonne for chickpeas and lentils, which is a massive run up in prices when you're talking that you're lucky to get two to three hundred for wheat. A huge opportunity for improved grower returns," said Phin Ziebell, an agribusiness specialist with the National Australia Bank.

If all goes well, this season is shaping as a bonanza for many, even if harvest time is still some months away.

Mr Wilson said he believed it could be a game-changer for many.

"The key message is we have to get it into the silo and we have to get it into the key market, but for many farmers it will be balance sheet-altering in terms of the benefits it will have to their cash flows and their farm profitability," he said.

Pulses are far more popular in countries like India and Africa. ( Brett Worthington )

Pulses to become more common on plates

Mr Ziebell predicted that with countries such as Canada also planting record areas of pulses, there would be a considerable and predictable price drop.

"We say by September quarter next year we're looking at less than $700 per tonne coming off $1,200," he said.

Regardless of what happens on the farm Australians are likely to see more pulses on their dinner plates.

Publicity from The International Year of Pulses, food magazines and cooking shows featuring recipes and raising the profile of pulses, is seeing a surge in domestic consumption.

In Australia per capita we eat around half the global average of seven kilograms of pulses each year. Charles Sturt University Professor of Psychology Anthony Saliba foresees pulses becoming more commonplace in the national diet.

"The health profile of pulses is just off the map, it's fantastic; very high levels of important proteins, anti-cancer properties, anti-obesity properties, and more and more research that's done around the world is bearing that out," he said.

"We also see a cultural evolution from consumers previously being very hedonically driven, so driven by taste particularly in Australia, to being much more interested in health and wanting to eat everyday foods that are healthy as well as taste good.

"So that's where pulses are really coming into their own."

Randy Duckworth from the Global Pulse Federation agrees.

"It's going to be on more plates. People are going to realise that not only is it delicious and healthy but it is a sustainable product that helps address food security," he said.

"If we're going to feed 9.5 billion people in the year 2050, pulses are part of the solution.

"We think it's going to be one of the big food trends worldwide."

See the story on Landline on Sunday at noon.