CGIAR Research Program on Grain Legumes: Proposal - Library

Impact pathwayFor improved varieties, the impact pathway will follow standard procedures for sharing of information andseed delivery mechanisms. For biological control agents and biopesticides, strong collaboration with NARSand extension systems facilitating demonstration and dissemination of the technologies will be an importantfactor for successful adoption leading to impact. Also, championing start-up industrial production ofbeneficial organisms, even at the ‘cottage industry’ level, will be necessary for fueling the value chain withthe needed inputs. It is therefore imperative that capacity building, exchange of knowledge and awareness –from the producer to the policy maker – are given due attention for efficient and sustained demonstrationand dissemination of IPM technologies for effective pest management in grain legumes.Generating new opportunities to intensify cropping systemsBetter production performance of grain legumes can motivate increased cultivation of grain legumes infarming systems currently with and without grain legumes. Due to their inability to compete with otheragricultural activities, lentils, faba bean and chickpeas are perceived to have been pushed out of manyfarming systems (Table 16). Despite an apparent importance of harvest difficulty in cultivating soybean, thePLs do not include efforts to increase the mechanizability due to the availability of private-sector initiatives.Difficulty in harvesting greatly affects three legumes soybeans, faba bean and lentil. Improved traits such asearliness, herbicide-tolerance, and ability for machine harvest can reduce scarce and expensive inputs suchas land and labor. For pigeonpea, substantial yield increases are foreseen in the next ten years ranging from14% in Myanmar (1230 to 1400 kg/ha) to 100% in Mozambique (340 to 700kg/ha). In India, the largestpigeonpea producer, yields are expected to increase 50% (730 to 1100 kg/ha). Such large productivityincreases are expected to intensify farming systems where pigeonpea is grown.Table 16. Associated legumes and productivity constraints of Product Lines 6, 7 and 8.Product Line 6. Extra-early chickpea and lentil varietiesRationaleSouth Asia’s farming systems are dominated by two cereal systems: rice-wheat (9.77 m ha) and rice-rice(2.12 m ha) systems. In the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP), expansion of more productive wheat in northern Indiaand boro-rice in eastern India and Bangladesh has resulted in substantial reductions of chickpea and lentilcultivation. With cereal yields projected to double over the next 30 years (Specht et al. 1999), legumes areGrain Legumes – Product Lines and Strategic Components 41