Germplasm Characterization and Trait Discovery

Diverse germplasm is essential to breeding new pigeonpea varieties resilient against both abiotic and biotic challenges. In this chapter, we review the major abiotic and biotic challenges faced by pigeonpea, and trait assessment tools available to the breeding community to address these challenges. We place particular attention on drought tolerance, due to its widespread nature and large effect on yield. We emphasize the utility of wild material to expand the range of available genetic variation; as such material is generally underutilized in breeding programs. A complete genome brings great potential to the pigeonpea breeding community; to fulfill the promise of a genome for breeding for climate resilience, the full range of diversity available must be brought to bear. We hope that conditions in the future allow wild germplasm collections to expand, further capitalizing on the potential to increase pigeonpea yields and resilience against climate change.