Current Status and Way Forward for Scaling Up Productivity of Pigeonpea in Madhya Pradesh: A Review

Madhya Pradesh ranks first both in terms of area (25%) and production (32%) of pulses in India. However, it ranks sixth after Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, West Bengal and Gujarat in terms of productivity. To realize better yield; recommended production and protection technologies have to be followed. Most of the pigeonpea varieties have been developed by traditional breeding either by pedigree method or selection from landraces or by bi-parental mating. After getting stable male sterile and restorer lines, development of hybrid pigeonpea have been major breeding objectives. Availably of genomic tools by decoding the genome sequence, pigeonpea have been equipped with modern genetic and genomic tools for use in the research programmes. Different approached like mining superior alleles by re-sequencing of wild species, fine mapping for drought tolerance, fertility restoration and developing superior lines by genomic selection, identification of candidate genes which are associated with hybrid vigour by using epi-genomics and mitochondrial genome sequencing and identification of candidate genes and functional markers for water-logging tolerance are already in progress. Transgenic approach has also been initiated to develop resistance against pod borer. Collaborative efforts among ICRISAT, IARI and IIPR-Kanpur are on the way for use of different transgenes and promoter options for developing transgenic plants and their evaluations for effectiveness and bio-safety concerns.