Pigeonpea : Development Of Improved Varieties
A new fast-breeding protocol has been developed by scientists at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) to accelerate the development of improved varieties of pigeonpea, an essential legume crop for nutritional security in drylands.
- Traditionally, developing a new pigeonpea variety takes around 13 years, but the new protocol can potentially reduce this breeding cycle to just two to four years.
- Pigeon Peas are widely cultivated in tropical and semitropical regions around the world. In India, more than 80% of tur production comes from six states: MS, MP, Karnataka, UP, Gujarat, and Jharkhand.
- Pigeon peas are commonly eaten in the form of the split pulse as “dal”
- Speed breeding is a plant breeding technology that uses protocols to accelerate flowering in crop plants.
- It uses optimal light quality, intensity, photoperiod, and temperatures to improve biomass accumulation and stimulate flowering and seed production.
- Speed breeding also uses immature seed harvesting to curtail the generation time.
