Iron meteorite fall at Bhuka village, Barmer District, Rajasthan

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International Research and Development Activities on Chickpea and Pigeonpea

The global productivity of chickpea has shown an upward trend in the last two decades, but at 0.8 t ha·1 it continues to be rather low, and far below the potential (5 t ha-1) or actually realized yields at research stations and farmer managed on-farm trials (2.5 to 3.5 t ha·1). The chickpea demand in 2010 is estimated at 11.1 million t, up from 8.2 million tin 2001-02, an increase of 35%. Approximately 85% of the additional demand would come from India alone. A combination of yield increase and area expansion would be possible options in meeting projected demand

Contribution of Grain Legumes in Combating Food and Nutrition In-Security in Different Regions of the World

Food security is a complex issue, linked to availability and access to food, malnutrition in the population, economic development, environment, and local and global trade. Malnutrition hinders healthy growth and proper development of the human immune system affecting neurological and cognitive development especially in children. Protein calorie malnutrition is a major nutritional problem in many developing countries. Considering the projected increase of world population to 9 billion by 2050, it is a huge challenge to meet the food and nutritional security of the growing world. Grain legumes are an important part of Afro-Asian diet and major providers of protein and calories in this region. Grain legumes are considered to be a good source of protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and other compounds that have significant nutritional arid health-related benefits which would very effectively address both malnutrition and food insecurity problems. Under the climate change scenario, there is an urgent need to diversify the cropping pattern by promoting cultivation of grain legumes due to their adaptation to different regions and climates. Important legumes that form a part of our daily diet in various forms include peas, beans, lentils, chickpea, pigeonpea, soybean, and groundnut. In this chapter we have briefly highlighted the global trade and economics-related aspects; and nutritional composition of important food legumes

Phenotyping Chickpeas and Pigeonpeas for Adaptation to Drought

The chickpea and pigeonpea are protein-rich grain legumes used for human consumption in many countries. Grain yield of these crops is low to moderate in the semi-arid tropics with large variation due to high GxE interaction. In the Indian subcontinent chickpea is grown in the post-rainy winter season on receding soil moisture, and in other countries during the cool and dry post winter or spring seasons. The pigeonpea is sown during rainy season which flowers and matures in post-rainy season. The rainy months are hot and humid with diurnal temperature varying between 25 and 35°C (maximum) and 20 and 25°C (minimum) with an erratic rainfall. The available soil water during post-rainy season is about 200–250 mm which is bare minimum to meet the normal evapotranspiration. Thus occurrence of drought is frequent and at varying degrees. To enhance productivity of these crops cultivars tolerant to drought need to be developed. ICRISAT conserves a large number of accessions of chickpea (>20,000) and pigeonpea (>15,000). However only a small proportion (<1%) has been used in crop improvement programs mainly due to non-availability of reliable information on traits of economic importance. To overcome this, core and mini core collections (10% of core, 1% of entire collection) have been developed. Using the mini core approach, trait-specific donor lines were identified for agronomic, quality, and stress related traits in both crops. Composite collections were developed both in chickpea (3000 accessions) and pigeonpea (1000 accessions), genotyped using SSR markers and genotype based reference sets of 300 accessions selected for each crop. Screening methods for different drought-tolerant traits such as early maturity (drought escape), large and deep root system, high water-use efficiency, smaller leaflets, reduced canopy temperature, carbon isotope discrimination, high leaf chlorophyll content (drought avoidance), and breeding strategies for improving drought tolerance have been discussed

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) also called Bengal gram or Garbanzo, is the largest produced food legume in South Asia and the third largest produced food legume globally, after common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) and field pea (Piston sativum L.). Chickpea is grown in more than 50 countries (90% area in Asia, 4.7% in Africa, 3.1% in Oceania, 1.6% in Americas and 0.5% in Europe), but developing countries account for over 95% of its production (FAO, 2011). Over 75% of the chickpea production comes from South Asia, where India is the largest chickpea producing country accounting for 67% of the global chickpea production. The other major chickpea producing countries include Pakistan, Turkey, Australia, Myanmar, Ethiopia, Iran, 'Mexico and Canada (Figure 1). During the triennium 2006-2009, the global chickpea area was about 11.1 m ha with a production of 9.3 m tons and average yield of nearly 838 kg ha-1 (FAO, 2011)

Enhancing the Productivity and Production of Pulses in India

Pulses are major sources of proteins among the vegetarians in India, and complement the staple cereals in the diets with proteins, essential amino acids, vitamins and minerals. They contain 22-24% protein, which is almost twice the protein in wheat and thrice that of rice. Pulses provide significant nutritional and health benefits, and are known to reduce several non-communicable diseases such as colon cancer and cardiovascular diseases (Yude et al, 1993; Jukanti et al, 2012). Pulses can be grown on range of soil and climatic conditions and play important role in crop rotation, mixed and inter-cropping, maintaining soil fertility through nitrogen fixation, release of soil-bound phosphorus, and thus contribute significantly to sustainability of the farming systems

Potential for using morphological, biochemical, and molecular markers for resistance to insect pests in grain legumes

Grain legumes such as chickpea, pigeon pea, cowpea, field pea, lentil, faba bean, black gram, green gram, grasspea and Phaseolus, have important roles in food and nutritional security, and sustainable crop production. Several insect pests damage these crops, of which gram pod borer (Helicoverpa armigera), spotted pod borer (Maruca vitrata), spiny pod borer (Etiella zinckenella), pod fly (Melanagromyza obtusa), stem fly (Ophiomyia phaseoli), aphids (Aphis craccivora and Aphis fabae), white fly (Bemisia tabaci), defoliators (Spodoptera litura, S. exigua and Amsacta spp.), leafhoppers (Empoasca spp.), thrips (Megalurothrips dorsalis and Caliothrips indicus), blister beetles (Mylabris spp.) and bruchids (Callosobruchus chinensis and Bruchus pisorum), cause extensive losses. Several sources of resistance to insects have been identified in grain legumes, and several morphological and biochemical traits associated with resistance to insects have also been identified. Genetic linkage maps were developed for some of the grain legumes. However, the accuracy and precision of phenotyping for resistance to insect pests remains a critical constraint in many crops. There are very few reports concerning the application of molecular markers for resistance to insect pests in grain legumes. There is a need for precise phenotyping, mapping of QTLs associated with insect resistance, and use them in conjunction with morphological and biochemical markers to develop cultivars with resistance to insect pests

Genetic resources and genomics for enhancing the efficiency of crop improvement in grain legumes

Grain legumes have great potential in alleviating protein hunger and malnutrition among poor people in developing countries, being the primary source of dietary protein. Besides their importance for human and animal nutrition, legumes fix nitrogen and are important components in the cropping systems for improving and sustaining soil fertility. Globally,..

Nutritional quality and health benefits of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.): a review

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is an important pulse crop grown and consumed all over the world, especially in the Afro-Asian countries. It is a good source of carbohydrates and protein, and protein quality is considered to be better than other pulses. Chickpea has significant amounts of all the essential amino acids except sulphur-containing amino acids, which can be complemented by adding cereals to the daily diet. Starch is the major storage carbohydrate followed by dietary fibre, oligosaccharides and simple sugars such as glucose and sucrose. Although lipids are present in low amounts, chickpea is rich in nutritionally important unsaturated fatty acids such as linoleic and oleic acids. b-Sitosterol, campesterol and stigmasterol are important sterols present in chickpea oil. Ca, Mg, P and, especially, K are also present in chickpea seeds. Chickpea is a good source of important vitamins such as riboflavin, niacin, thiamin, folate and the vitamin A precursor b-carotene. As with other pulses, chickpea seeds also contain anti-nutritional factors which can be reduced or eliminated by different cooking techniques. Chickpea has several potential health benefits, and, in combination with other pulses and cereals, it could have beneficial effects on some of the important human diseases such as CVD, type 2 diabetes, digestive diseases and some cancers. Overall, chickpea is an important pulse crop with a diverse array of potential nutritional and health benefits