Pigeonpea hybrid breeding in India

The constantly increasing gap in the demand to supply for pigeon pea has been a matter of concern to pigeon pea researchers in India to increase productivity and production. The entomophily abet cross-pollination behavior of pigeon pea is a desirable crop to develop and establish the hybrid system to exploit the commercial heterosis. Keeping this in view, pigeon pea research was directed towards a new initiative on hybrid pigeon pea breeding at ICRISAT, Hyderabad immediately after the identification of a male sterile line in 1974. Which in turn led to the development of a new GMS hybrid called ICPH 8 in 1991 for cultivation in the central zone. Then five GMS hybrids (PPH 4, CoPH 1, CoPH 2, AKPH 4101, and AKPH 2022) in the early maturing group were released by the state and central varietal release committee. Nevertheless, the GMS-based hybrids did not yield much success due to difficulty in the production of commercial F1 seed. Trifurcation of All India Coordinated Pulses Improvement (AICPIP) and further strengthening of AICPRP on pigeon pea led to the development of national level strategic and basic research vis-àvis provided testing platform for varieties and hybrids. The advertent GMS system led to the development of a stable and economically viable CGMS system in pigeon pea after 26 years of its first GMS initiative. The first CGMS line GT 288A and its maintainer B line was registered by Pulse Research Station, SDAU, GAU, SK Nagar, Gujarat in 2000. Consequently, in 2006 the first CMS hybrid GTH 1 was developed by SDAU, Gujarat, and released by CVRC for cultivation in the central zone. Thirty-nine CGMS lines have been registered with ICAR-NBPGR and four CMS-based hybrids (ICPH 2671, ICPH 2740, IPH 15-03, and IPH 09-5) are released for cultivation. It is to endorse that the joint efforts of the ICAR-NARS and ICRISAT led to the establishment of the hybrid system in pigeon pea by sharing the materials and technology. Nonetheless, supplying quality hybrid seed is a mammoth task to reap the true potential of hybrid technology in pigeon pea.