Record Details

Pigeonpea

OAR@ICRISAT

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Relation http://oar.icrisat.org/9166/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9572-7_7
 
Title Pigeonpea
 
Creator Mallikarjuna, N
 
Subject Pigeonpea
 
Description Pigeonpea ( Cajanus cajan L.) is the sixth most important grain legume
in the world and second most important pulse crop after chickpea in India. It is a
major source of protein for several resource poor rural and urban families of Asia,
Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America and can be cultivated successfully under
limited inputs as well as rainfed conditions. Although enormous breeding efforts
have been put to the improvement of pigeonpea during the last few decades, the
progress in terms of increasing production and quality improvement has not been up
to the desired level. One of the major reasons behind this is susceptibility of this
crop to many biotic and abiotic stresses , as well as a narrow genetic base of cultivated
germplasm thereby offering limited chances of genetic recombination and
consequently slower rates of genetic improvement. On the other hand, wild relatives
of pigeonpea have evolved naturally to survive environmental extremities including
droughts, fl oods, excess heat, and cold and also have the capability to withstand
damage by insect pests and diseases. Owing to these properties, these species have
invoked interest of breeders in utilizing them for the improvement of their cultivated
counterparts. Consequently, over the past many years, tremendous improvements of
practical importance have taken place in pigeonpea utilizing wild genetic resources.
This chapter summarizes such significant achievements and highlights the utilization
status of wild species in genetic improvement of pigeonpea.
 
Publisher Springer
 
Contributor Pratap, A
Kumar, J
 
Date 2014
 
Type Book Section
PeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Language en
 
Rights —
 
Identifier http://oar.icrisat.org/9166/1/153-162.pdf
Mallikarjuna, N (2014) Pigeonpea. In: Alien Gene Transfer in Crop Plants, Achievements and Impacts. Springer, India, pp. 153-162. ISBN 978-1-4614-9571-0