dal is a perennial legume that belongs to the Fabaceae family, which is also known as pigeon pea or split pigeon pea, arhar dal or red gram dal. Tracing its root to the Indian subcontinent at least 3500 years ago, this lentil had been the main food in AsToor ia, Africa and Latin America.

Toor dal is widely grown in tropical and semitropical regions across the world, India accounts for 72% of major production of pigeon pea in an area covering 3.9 million hectares. It is a drought-resistant plant and can be cultivated in regions with minimal rainfall. Toor dal is cultivated solely as a crop or merged with cereals such as sorghum, pearl millet or maize or with other legumes such as peanuts. Pigeon pea is capable of symbiosis with Rhizobia, the bacteria linked with toor dal nurtures soils through symbiotic nitrogen fixation. The seed pods look flat, sickle-shaped with a length of 5-9 cm, each pod comprises 3-9 seeds that range from white, cream, yellow, purple or a combination of any of these shades. Pigeon pea grows to a height of 0.5- 4.0 m, the crop usually survives for three to five years, though the yield falls considerably after the first two years.