MUNGBEAN VARIETAL IMPROVEMENT S. Shanmugasundaram

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With the establishment of the South Asian Vegetable Research network
(SAVERNET), the MYMV network was informally organized after the
international MYMV Expert Consultation Workshop in 1991 in Bangkok. The
AVRDC/USAID/BARI Project in Bangladesh is ensuring in-country and
AVRDC-Bangladesh collaboration. Furthermore, the mungbean session during the
International Symposium on Pulses Research in 1994 in New Delhi has reassured
the collaborative spirit for mungbean in this region. AVRDC is currently
preparing a formal mungbean research network.
Problems and Future Prospects
Dramatic yield improvements have been made in mungbean from
hybridization of new pathogen and pest resistant cultivars from India with early
maturing,high yielding cultivars from the Philippines and elsewhere. Traidtionally,
mungbean is grown in a low yield environment, with little attention to the yield
inputs routinely given to other crops. Traditional breeding efforts need to be
continued and augmented to further improve yield potential and yield stability.
Tolerance to heat and drought and resistance to Cercospora, powdery mildew, and
virus diseases still pose a challenge to breeders and pathologists. While MYMV
constitutes a serious hazard in the Indian subcontinent, good progress has been
made in India on breeding for MYMV resistance combined with resistance to
Cercospora leaf spot and various pests. Other viruses attack mungbean ad reduce
yields in local areas. In addition to traditional breeding methods, innovative new
approaches such as genotype stability analysis (Dahiya and Singh, 1985; Verma et
al., 1978), would help to identify superior parent materials.
Future strategies should be directed toward sustaining high yields in
farmer's fields. Utilization of the mungbean's short maturity as an intercrop, or as a
short season crop in a multiple cropping system, would increase profitability of
growing mungbean. Varietal research needs to be directed toward cultivars with
this special utility and resistance to the disease and insect hazards associated with
specific cropping patterns. Quality of seeds would be improved by enhancing the
sulfur containing aminoacids. Mungbean breeding and evaluation of cultivars
must be integrated into the total production system which involves fertility
maintenance; disease, insect, and weed control; and efficient labor management.
Mungbean is used to be planted in the marginal land. Recently, however,
the newly developed cultivars with high yield, early and uniform maturity, and
disease and insect resistance have been planted in extensive areas with appropriate
inputs and management to increase the sustainability and farmer's income with the
cereal-cereal rotation in Asia.
Acknowledgement
The senior author expresses his gratitude to the World Food Institute,
Ames, Iowa, U.S.A. for providing the Distinguished Foreign Scholar award to
spend his sabbatic leave at the Iowa State University during which a preliminary
draft of this chapter was prepared. The authors gratefully acknowledge the
assistance of Dr. J.M. Poehlman in preparing the first few versions of the
manuscript.