|
February 25, 2009
by Henry Neondo,
Africa Science
News Service
A new, improved, protein-rich pea called Pushkal, is the first
commercially available hybrid legume in the world and is set to
launch a new Green Revolution.
“With 40 percent higher yields than the best local varieties,
Pushkal is truly the magic pea,” exclaims Dr. William Dar,
Director General of the India-based
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).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.
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).
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. M. S. 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.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.
K.B. 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.
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. |
|
