Cultivar Development of Pulses Crop

The last decade has witnessed dramatic changes in global food consumption patterns mainly because of population growth and economic development. Food substitutions for healthier eating, such as swapping regular servings of meat for protein-rich crops, is an emerging diet trend that may shape the future of food systems and the environment worldwide. To meet the erratic consumer demand in a rapidly changing world where resources become increasingly scarce due largely to anthropogenic activity, the need to develop crops that benefit both human health and the environment has become urgent. Pulses constitute an important component of prevailing cropping sequences followed by across the country with region specific variations in preferences and suitability to agro-production situation. Chickpea, pigeonpea, urdbean, mungbean, lentil, fieldpea, cowpea and lathyrus are the major pulse crops grown in the country. Classical plant breeding uses deliberate interbreeding of closely or distantly related individuals to produce new crop varieties or lines with desirable properties. Plants are crossbred to introduce traits/genes from one variety or line into a new genetic background. Thus, classical breeding relies largely on homologous recombination between chromosomes to generate genetic diversity. However, the classical plant breeder may also use in vitro techniques such as embryo rescue or mutagenesis to generate diversity and produce hybrid plants that would not exist in nature.

This book focuses on cultivar development of pulses crop with the development of pulses crop and the realization of their important roles in providing plant protein, disaster relief, and diet adjustments, the planting area and market demands of these crops are now increasing.

Adoption of high yielding varieties in early 1980's increased the average productivity of the country by 34% now. Significant achievements have been made in developing short duration cultivars in almost all pulse crops with incorporation of photo- thermo insensitivity. Genetic resistance for most of the diseases have been identified and incorporated in development of disease resistant cultivars. In fieldpea, a major breakthrough has been made by developing dwarf and afila plant type which led to increase in yield by 30%. Although cultivar development has traditionally emphasized improvement through pedigree selection, mass -pedigree method and backcross breeding, interspecific hybridization has also received much attention in 1980s.