IPA 15-2 (Sharada): A high yielding, wilt and sterility mosaic disease resistant pigeonpea cultivar for North East Plain Zone

Development of improved cultivars with enhanced resistance/tolerance is an indispensable process to improve the productivity in pigeonpea. Newly released long duration pigeonpea variety IPA 15-2 (Sharada) was developed by crossing diverse parents’ viz., NDA 1 and MAL 13. The generation advancement was monitored through pedigree breeding method. The female parent NDA 1 is compact in growth habit with resistant reaction to sterility mosaic disease (SMD). While, the male parent MAL 13 is spreading and resistant to wilt disease. The variety IPA 15-2 (Sharada) was subjected to three years rigorous testing for yield stability and disease resistance under All India Coordinated Research Project on pigeonpea during 2017–18 to 2019–20. The results revealed that the weighted mean of three years grain yield over six test location was 2266 kg/ha. However, the centre Varanasi recorded highest yield of 2998 kg/ha. The variety IPA 15-2 (Sharada) offers 23.47% higher yield superiority over the national check variety Bahar and 24.38% over zonal check IPA 203 (Prakash). It is resistant to wilt (15.11%) and sterility mosaic disease (15.62%). Keeping this in view the committee on Release of Crop Variety to Central Sub-Committee on Crop Standards Notification and Release of Varieties has recommended IPA 15-2 (Sharada) for cultivation in North East Plain Zone comprising the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.