Bringing Pulse Revolution
in India
Rajeev Varshney, Pooran Gaur and
Sameer Kumar
ICRISAT, Patancheru
DAC, New Delhi, 26 Nov 2014
Priority areas
1. Promoting cultivation of early maturing, heat tolerant
varieties for expanding chickpea cultivation in rice-fallows
of eastern India
2. Promoting cultivation of early duration pigeonpea in high
elevation and rice-fallow cropping system
3. Promoting early-maturing, drought and heat tolerant, and
fusarium wilt resistant chickpea varieties in central and
southern India
4. Expanding hybrid pigeonpea cultivation
5. Modernization of pulses breeding
6. Knowledge empowerment of farmers and making seeds
and other inputs available
1. Promoting cultivation of early maturing, heat
tolerant varieties for expanding chickpea
cultivation in rice-fallows of eastern India
States
Rice-fallows
(million ha)
Chhattisgarh + MP
4.4
Jharkhand + Bihar
2.2
Odisha
1.2
West Bengal
1.7
Total
9.5
Chickpea in rice-fallows
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•
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Chickpea is a potential pulse crop for ricefallows
A bonus crop
Improves soil fertility and yield of rice
Varietal traits desired for rice-fallows
• Early seedling vigour
• Early maturity
• Reproductive stage drought and heat
tolerance
• Resistance to fusarium wilt
States
Suitable varieties
Chhattisgarh + MP JG 14, Vaibhav, JG 63
Jharkhand + Bihar
JG 14, KAK 2
Odisha
JG 14, JAKI 9218, KAK 2, Vihar
Further research needed for rice-fallows
• Crop establishment (seed priming, zero
till seed drills)
• Nutrient management, particularly
micronutrients
• Development of super-early varieties
(several elite lines available for testing)
Zero till seeding of chickpea in Bihar
Super early breeding line
2. Promoting cultivation of early duration pigeonpea
in high elevation and rice-fallow cropping system
Early
 Elite lines with high yield potential over UPAS 120 available
 There is a need to develop high yielding, early duration types to fit in
pigeonpea-wheat cropping systems of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and UP
 CMS and Maintainer lines have been identified in early group and hybrid
breeding can be initiated to develop suitable hybrids
Super early
 Photo insensitive and day neutral
 High yield potential types (33 lines) available
 Matures in <100 days, fits well in cropping
systems
 Suitable for mechanization
 Best bet for rice-fallow
3. Early-maturing, drought and heat tolerant, and fusarium
wilt resistant chickpea varieties in central and southern India
Drought tolerance
Early maturity
Fusarium wilt resistance
Heat tolerance
States
Suitable varieties
Andhra Pradesh &
Karnataka
JG 11, JAKI 9218, NBeG 3, Vihar, BGD 103
Madhya Pradesh
JG 14, JG 130, JG 63, JAKI 9218, KAK 2, RVG 201
Maharashtra
Digvijay, Rajas, PKV 4
Research need for central and southern India
 Combining dry root and fusarium wilt resistance and
drought and heat tolerance
Dry root rot
Dry root rot
8
4. Expanding Hybrid cultivation
 ICPH 2671, ICPH 2740 and ICPH 3762
hybrids have been commercialized in AP,
Telangana, Odisha, Maharashtra, Gujarat
and MP.
 Seed production technology has been
standardized.
 There is a need for hands on training on
maintenance of parental lines and certified
seed production of hybrids.
 Large scale seed production has to be
under taken by public and private stake
holders
 >100,000 ha under cultivation in 2013-2014
in AP, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Odisha
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Hybrid breeding strengthening for different
agro-ecologies of India
 Need to focus on hands on training to breeders across
the country on breeding and development of high
yielding parental lines and Heterotic hybrids.
 Stable sources of CMS lines are available
 New sources like Cajanus reticulatous are to be
explored for high yielding hybrids
 Parental lines with disease resistance and for different
maturity and seed color available
 Molecular markers for hybrid purity assessment are
available (GOT)
 Efforts are required to develop two line breeding
approach
 Need for agronomic interventions for realizing full
potential of the hybrid
4. Modernization of pulses breeding
• Success story of marker-assisted
backcrossing (MABC) for
developing more drought
tolerant lines in chickpea; need
to target maximum elite
varieties for MABC to have
higher yield
• Implementation of markers in
routine hybrid breeding program
of pigeonpea is underway; need
to have markers for target traits
• Use of electronic data capture
and integrated
breeding by partner
institutes
6. Knowledge empowerment of farmers and
making seeds and other inputs available
• Training of farmers
• Ensuring input supplies, particularly
seed of improved cultivars
• Farmer participatory trials for
selection of improved technologies
by the farmers
Success story from Andhra Pradesh on adoption of
short duration varieties
During the past 12 years (2000 - 2011)
• 3.6-fold increase in area (163,000 to
580,000 ha)
• 2.1-fold increase in yield (583 to
1241 kg/ha)
• 7.6-fold increase in production
(95,000 to 720,000 t)
• >90% area under improved early
cultivars (JG 11, JAKI 9218, KAK 2,
Vihar)
Thank you!
ICRISAT is a member of the CGIAR Consortium