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Book of Abstracts First Legume Society Conference 2013: A Legume Odyssey Novi Sad, Serbia, 9-11 May 2013
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The world’s first commercial legume hybrid reaches farmers
KB Saxena 1 , RV Kumar 1 , AN Tikle 2 , MK Saxena 2 , MG Mula, CV Kumar 1
1 International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Patancheru, India
2 RVRS Krishi Vishwa Vidhalaya, Gwalior, India
Hybrid technology has been exploited for large yield gains in many crops. The food legumes,
however, could not be benefitted from this breakthrough. Recently, ICRISAT scientists have
achieved a major breakthrough by developing the world’s first commercial hybrid in pigeonpea
(Cajanus cajan L.), a food legume of tropics and sub-tropics. The hybrid technology has provided
an opportunity for breaking the decades-old yield plateau in pigeonpea. ICPH 2671 is the world’s
first pigeonpea hybrid, based on cytoplasmic nuclear male sterility system, was released by a
Government agency in India in 2010. During 2009 and 2010, ICPH 2671 was evaluated in 2013
on-farm trials in five provinces and on average, this hybrid produced 40.6% more yield over the
best variety. This hybrid is highly resistant to diseases such as fusarium wilt and sterility mosaic
virus. ICPH 2671 performs superbly under both pure and intercropping systems in different
environments. During the last few years, large-scale hybrid seed production technology has also
been perfected. The cross-pollination of female parent is facilitated by a number of flying insects
and hybrid yield of between 800 - 1000 kg/ha can easily be harvested. Due to high demand of
hybrid seed and ease in its large-scale production, this hybrid technology has been adopted by a
number of seed producers. Plans have been made by various Government and other agencies to
promote hybrid cultivation on a large scale. We believe that the large-scale adoption of the hybrid
will break the decades-old yield barrier and benefit millions of farmers.
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