Patancheru, India
March 2, 2009
A new, improved, protein-rich pea
is set to launch a new Green Revolution. This new variety of
pigeonpea, called Pushkal, is the first commercially available
hybrid legume in the world.
“With 40 percent higher yields than the best local varieties,
Pushkal is truly the magic pea,” exclaims Dr William Dar,
Director General of the
International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics
(ICRISAT).
Pigeonpea is a high protein dietary staple in many semi-arid
tropical countries of the world. It is especially important in
India, eastern and southern Africa, the Caribbean and Myanmar,
areas where high protein foods are scarce. Pigeonpea provides 20
to 22 percent of the protein in most of the countries where it
is grown extensively ( India, Myanmar, Nepal, China,
south-eastern Africa). Globally, pigeonpea is cultivated on 4.92
million hectares (about 12 million acres), about the size of
Texas or about 1/4 the area covered with corn) with a
productivity of 898 kg (1975.6 lbs) per hectare (2.47 acres).
In India, dry, split pigeonpea often are cooked as dal, a
traditional curry eaten with rice or bread. In addition,
immature green seeds and pods are eaten as a green vegetable.
Also pigeonpea seeds are crushed to provide animal feed; in
rural areas, its dry stems are used for fuel.
The new hybrid thrives in drought conditions and has greater
resistance to diseases than the best varieties. It also creates
a strong root system which aids greater nitrogen fixation to
keep soils fertile.
The new variety which is very affordable for poor farmers comes
during a global pigeonpea shortage which has caused prices to
soar, creating misery among millions of poor people who cannot
afford them.
Dr MS Swaminathan, the agricultural scientist considered as the
father of India’s Green Revolution, compares ICRISAT’s
breakthrough in developing a hybrid pigeonpea to the development
of wheat and rice with dwarfing genes that launched the global
Green Revolution for cereals in the 1960s.
Pigeonpea research is also being done in other parts of the
world. “Our efforts in eastern and southern Africa have
established an active pigeonpea research program that has
already resulted in the release and adoption of improved
varieties. African farmers are reaping the benefits from
improved food security and enhanced incomes from the new
varieties,” Dr Dar says.
In eastern and southern Africa, ICRISAT scientists have taken an
entirely different approach to improving pigeonpea, using
conventional cross breeding techniques to identify varieties
that are disease resistant (Fusarium wilt) and specifically
tailored to the temperature, altitude and soil conditions of a
given area.
Breaking the yield barrier
ICRISAT scientists have been working with national programs in
India since 1974, but was not able to develop new high yielding
varieties before turning to a new breeding technology leading to
the development of Pushkal (ICPH 2671), the world’s first
cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) based pigeonpea hybrid. The new
hybrid technology provides the opportunity of achieving the
long-cherished goal of breaking the yield barrier in pigeonpea.
Internationally, over a dozen legumes are cultivated by farmers
but due to their self-pollinating nature, no commercial hybrids
are available. At ICRISAT, scientists have used the partial
natural out-crossing of pigeonpea to breeding hybrids. For this
it was essential to develop a stable CMS line. This was
accomplished after 30 years of dedicated research, a great
achievement from the plant breeding point of view.
Male-sterile plants are those that do not have functional male
sex organs. Hybrid production requires a female plant in which
no viable pollen grains are borne. The expensive and
labor-intensive method is to remove the male organs (anthers)
from the plants. The other simple way to establish a female line
for hybrid seed production is to identify or create a line that
is unable to produce viable pollen. This male-sterile line is
therefore unable to self-pollinate, and seed formation is
dependent upon pollen from the other male fertile line. By
developing a parental line that has the trait for male-sterility
in the cytoplasm (or the cell fluid) it could be ensured that
all progeny from this line were male-sterile.
“This new technology helped us break the yield barrier that has
plagued Indian agriculture for the past five decades,” says Dr
KB Saxena, ICRISAT’s principal pigeonpea breeder.
After successful testing by poor farmers in India, Pravardhan
Seeds and other private and public seed companies began
producing large quantities of Pushkal seeds.
Hybrid due for wide planting
To date, seeds for the new pigeonpea hybrid have been planted on
some 5,000 hectares (12,500 acres), but Dr. Saxena predicts that
the hybrid will be widely planted in the next few years as the
low cost seed becomes more readily available.
“Because India has many private seed companies, we went through
the private sector for production and marketing,” explains Dr
Saxena. “That’s how we distribute the new seeds quickly.”
Plants and seeds developed by ICRISAT are not patented and
remain in the public domain for use by public and private
institutions.
The new hybrid technology has generated interest from a number
of other countries, including Myanmar, Brazil, the Philippines
and China.
In southern China, pigeonpea hybrids, because they have strong
root systems, will be useful to preventing soil erosion, a huge
problem in the hilly areas.
Although the new Pushkal hybrid has received the most attention,
three new hybrid varieties developed at ICRISAT are under final
testing.
A different approach for Africa
ICRISAT researchers have taken a different approach on African
pigeonpeas which were until recently not carefully studied. Most
of the research had been done in India, where small brown,
quick-cooking beans are preferred; in Africa, the preferred
pigeonpeas are white, larger and the whole seeds are cooked.
“Indian pigeonpea hybrids don’t adapt well to conditions in
Africa, where altitude, climate, soil condition and rainfall are
quite different,” says Dr Said Silim, ICRISAT’s regional
director for eastern and southern Africa.
For example, Kenya, near the equator, has a natural increase in
altitude from sea level to 5000 meters. The ICRISAT researchers
charted the effects of temperature and day-length sensitivity at
different altitudes, then duplicated conditions experimentally.
They discovered that plants mature in 180 days in warmer
temperatures and 150 days in cooler, high altitudes in Africa.
Since wilt disease is a significant problem for African
pigeonpea, various varieties were planted in local fields to
find plants which were wilt resistant. Thus, researchers,
working with local farmers, were able to incorporate in the
African pigeonpea adaptation to temperature, climate and light.
The pea had white grain and was wilt resistant.
“We developed niche varieties, knowing what we were targeting,”
Dr Silim points out.
In Tanzania, for instance, this meant finding high yield
varieties that cook fast and have the taste and aroma favored by
the local population; the pea is resistant to wilt; and matures
early.
Other varieties include bean varieties favored in India, where
crops are timed for export between May and October when the
country faces a pigeonpea shortage. This work has boosted income
for local farmers and varieties that mature early give farmers
two crops a year.
Spreading the word
In addition to continuing its active research program, ICRISAT
wants to spread the word about pigeonpeas, to target areas with
mono-culture crops by showing that by intercropping with
pigeonpeas, both crops are more productive.
ICRISAT also wants to encourage canning processed pigeonpeas,
the way black-eyed peas are canned.
In its pigeonpea research, ICRISAT works with national
agricultural research systems, sharing germplasm, hybrid parents
and breeding lines, as well as cutting edge knowledge and
skills.
National partners include Australia, China, Fiji, India, Kenya,
Malawi, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Papua New Guinea,
Philippines, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand,
Uganda, and USA.
Likewise, a hybrid pigeonpea research consortium established by
ICRISAT through its Agri-Science Park includes 22 private sector
seed companies in India.
Partnerships with advanced research institutes led to the
identification of the sterility mosaic virus, a major problem in
India.
Farmer and women’s groups have aided with variety selection,
integrated pest management work and production of hybrid seeds.
On ICRISAT’s research anvil are transgenic pigeonpea varieties
and hybrids resistant to the pod borer, Helicoverpa armigera.
These are currently undergoing contained field trials at its
headquarters in Patancheru, Hyderabad India.
ICRISAT is one of 15 allied Centers supported by the
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research
(CGIAR). |
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