Pigeonpea - A unique jewel in rainfed cropping systems

Pigeonpea is a crop for rainfed environments endowed with several features to thrive harsh climate. It adapts well in sole crop and inter cropped conditions (with cereals, millets, oils seeds and pulses) by enhancing the system productivity and net income to the small and marginal farmers across the globe. The range of maturity duration in the crop allows it to grow in diversified cropping systems and patterns in varied ecoregions of the world. Development of cytoplasmic male sterility based hybrids provided an opportunity for enhancing the yields under marginal environments. With recent interventions in addressing the photo sensitivity and maturity have led to evolving super early varieties with less than 100 days duration, provided a scope for horizontal expansion of the crop in different agro ecological systems

Optimum sowing time of quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd) in Telangana State, India

A field experiment was conducted in 2016-17 and 2017-18 during Rabi season at Regional Agricultural Research Station, Palem, Nagarkurnool District of Telangana State, India. The treatments consisted of 7 sowing dates with 15-day intervals (T1- October 10th, T2- October 25th, T3- November 10th, T4- November 25th, T5- December 10th, T6- December 25th and T7- January 10th). The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design and was replicated three times. This study was conducted with the objective of determining the optimum sowing time for quinoa in Telangana state, India. A greater seed yield was detected for the crops sown between October 10th (2174 kg/ha) and November 25th (1931 kg/ha); on further delay in sowing after November 25th, i.e., December 10th (1026 kg/ha), December 25th (600 kg/ha) and January 10th (590 kg/ha), the seed yields were drastically reduced due to the higher temperature at the reproductive stage of the crop. Hence, from this study, it can be noted that the optimum sowing date for quinoa in Telangana was from October 10th to November 25th

Crop specific traits of Pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millspaugh) and their implications in seed production

Pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.] is an important pulse crop of Indian rainfed agriculture. Of the 3.47 m ha grown under the crop in India with mean productivity of 711 kg/ha, the central and southern India contributes over 72.8% in area and 69.5% in production with a mean yield of 649.2 kg/ha.(DAC, 2011). In spite of dedicated variety breeding efforts, the productivity of pigeonpea has remained unacceptably low for over 50 years. Photoperiod and thermoperiod sensitivity and perenniabiltiy are the major issues that cause hindrance in quality seed production of the crop. To break this yield plateau, a hybrid breeding technology, based on natural out-crossing and cytoplasmic nuclear and genetic male-sterility (CGMS) systems were developed at ICRISAT and PJTSAU and a number of hybrids with 30-100% yield advantages over the control were identified. Among these, ICPH 2740 was found most outstanding. In 31 multi-location trials conducted over five years, this hybrid (2793 kg/ha) recorded 41% superiority over the ruling variety Asha (1985 kg/ha). The performance record of hybrids suggests that this technology has a potential for breaking yield barrier in pigeonpea. Genome sequencing (Varshney et al. 2012), development of photo insensitive super early maturing lines, introgression of cleistogamous flower structure to maintain genetic purity of elite lines, use of obcordate leaf shape as NEP to assess genetic purity of hybrid parental lines and development of disease resistant hybrids and elite breeding lines are some of the recent innovations in the crop which offer a scope for the enhancement of production and productivity and ushers the crop as an economical viable option by the public and private seed industry

Hybrid Technology–a new vista in pigeonpea breeding

Once designated as an ‘orphan crop’ to now being crowned as a mainstream ‘commercial crop’, pigeonpea has evolved over the decades as lifeline for millions of resource poor farmers in the semi-arid tropics, where it is cultivated for both subsistence and commercial purpose.Pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L.)] is the sixth most important legume crop, grown predominantly in the tropical and sub-tropical regions of Asia, Africa and Latin America. India is considered as the center of origin of pigeonpea (Van der Maesen, 1980) because of its natural genetic variability available in the local germplasm and the presence of its wild relatives in the country..

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Not AvailableIntermittent drought and an incidence of grain mold disease are the two major constraints affecting sorghum production and productivity. The study aimed at developing drought-tolerant sorghum varieties possessing a high protein content and tolerance to grain mold with stable performance using additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) and genotype and genotype × environment interaction (GGE) biplot methods. Systematic hybridization among the 11 superior landraces resulted in subsequent pedigree-based breeding and selection from 2010 to 2015 evolved 19 promising varieties of grains such as white, yellow, and brown pericarp grains. These grain varieties were evaluated for their adaptability and stability for yield in 13 rainfed environments and for possessing tolerance to grain mold in three hot spot environments. A variety of yellow pericarp sorghum PYPS 2 (3,698 kg/ha; 14.52% protein; 10.70 mg/100 g Fe) possessing tolerance to grain mold was identified as a stable variety by using both AMMI and GGE analyses. Four mega-environments were identified for grain yield and fodder yield. Sorghum varieties PYPS 2, PYPS 4, PYPS 8, and PYPS 11 were highly stable in E2 with a low grain mold incidence. Besides meeting the nutritional demand of smallholder farmers under dryland conditions, these varieties are suitable for enhancing sorghum productivity under the present climate change scenario.Not Availabl