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| More hybrid varieties of tur set to hit market |
| Mahesh Kulkarni / Chennai/ Bangalore Feb 15, 2010, 00:39 IST |
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The Hyderabad-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (Icrisat), a non-profit, non-political agricultural research organisation, is set to release three new hybrid varieties of pigeon pea (tur or red gram) for commercial multiplication by seed companies, a senior scientist said.
“After the commercialisation of cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS)-based pigeon pea hybrid (ICPH 2671) two years ago, we have developed three more hybrid varieties. The test results are promising and we will give parental lines to seed companies for multiplication later this year,” CL Laxmipathi Gowda, Global Theme Leader, Crop Improvement and Management, Icrisat, told Business Standard.
He said Icrisat had developed and released the hybrid pigeon pea for the first time in 2008 and this was now been commercialised. A few hundred farmers in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have tried their harvest. “On the farmers’ fields in the last two years, the average yield was 28 quintals per hectare, about 40 per cent more than the existing varieties,” Gowda said and added that large scale commercial production would start by mid 2010. The seeds will be available in large quantities this year. Companies like Bio Seed, Zuari, Mahyco, Nuziveedu Seeds Limited and JK Seeds have commercially produced the hybrid variety in a small quantity.
According to Gowda, the new hybrid, which Icrisat is set to launch will be a better yielding, disease (wilt and sterility mosaic)-resistant hybrid pigeon pea variety and delivers almost 40 per cent more yield compared with the existing varieties like PT 221, GS-1 and ICTP series.
He said the three new varieties had been put to field trials in collaboration with agriculture universities in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, and would be available for commercial multiplication by 2010-end.
“We are doing hybrid development as a proof of concept. In the next three or four years, we will stop making hybrids and give only parental lines to seed companies,” Gowda added.
Icrisat has worked with Agriculture University of Gujarat, the Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Kanpur, University of Agriculture Sciences, Bangalore and Coimbatore for the last 25 years. It has a gene bank for 18,000 varieties of pigeon pea and wild species collected from around the world. It has collaborated with the National Seed Corporation and also with a few private seed companies.
“We need support from the state governments, National Seed Corporation, and the private sector seed companies to come forward to multiply for commercial cultivation. We are willing to give parental lines. They have to get the seed multiplied and put it into the market,” Gowda said.
These varieties are a medium duration hybrid, which takes about 150-160 days. They are suitable for cultivation in northern parts of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharastra and Madhya Pradesh. “We have also developed other varieties that are suitable for other parts of the country,” he said.
Red gram or pigeon pea is an important pulse crop of India and is grown on about 3.5 million hectares in the country.
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