Commercial pigeonpea hybrids are just a few steps away

The long cherished goal of pigeon pea breeders has been to break the yield barrier in the crop. This indeed is a difficult task, as the productivity has remained low in spite of releasing over 100 varieties. Therefore, the alternative breeding approach such as hybrids, which has been effectively used in many crop species, was attempted for enhancing yield. This is because pigeon pea is a unique legume with partial insect-aided natural out-crossing. ICRISAT began research on this breeding approach in pigeon pea and in 1991, ICRISAT along with Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) released the world's first genetic male-sterility (GMS) based pigeon pea hybrid ICPH 8. This was followed by the releases of 5 additional GMS-based hybrids. These hybrids performed well and in spite of their 25-40% superiority in yield they could not be commercialized because of their tedious and inefficient seed production technology. These developments, however, encouraged ICRISAT to breed a more efficient cytoplasmic-nuclear male-sterility (CMS) system that would overcome the seed production bottlenecks of GMS-based hybrids. In the last 14 years, ICRISAT and ICAR have made a significant progress in developing 5 CMS systems using the cytoplasm of the wild relatives of pigeon pea. Among these, A2 and A4 CMS systems are being used in developing the new generation of pigeon pea hybrids. A number of new experimental hybrids have exhibited over 50% hybrid vigour for seed yield. The CMS-based hybrid pigeon pea technology is new and intensive efforts are needed to (i) identify heterotic hybrid combinations, (ii) diversify nuclear base of parental lines, (iii) train human resources, and (iv) expand seed production and marketing systems. So far the progress in the mission of breeding high-yielding CMS-based pigeon pea hybrids has been tremendous and we believe that the reality of commercial hybrids is just a few years away from now.