A Short-Cut Approach for Breeding Pigeonpea Hybrids With Tolerance to Biotic and Abiotic Stresses

Abstract

Lack of stability associated with low productivity have remained key production constraints in pigeonpea for decades. In this paper, efforts have been made to address these two issues together by breeding high yielding pigeonpea hybrids carrying resistance/tolerance to some important biotic and abiotic stresses. In normal course, the selection of parental lines and breeding stress tolerant hybrids will take about 15 years. Therefore as an alternative, a short-cut hybrid breeding approach was designed and its salient features are discussed here. It is expected that by following this approach the crop losses caused by diseases, drought, and waterlogging can be reduced and at the same time, productivity can be enhanced through the exploitation of hybrid vigour.