Hyderabad: City-based research institute, Icrisat, has re-sequenced the genome of 292 pigeon pea varieties to develop a new, stronger DNA line that will have various resistant qualities.
The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics and nine other institutions, is deriving the new DNA trait that would be better suited for cultivation in times of climate change, with higher yield and shorter life cycles.
The research has also proved the origin of the pulse to be from Madhya Pradesh. Pigeon pea, commonly known as arhar or tur daal, is a major pulse crop for farmers and consumers. There are over 13,700 varieties of the crop, but researchers have to spend up to 10-12 years to develop a new hybrid variant. With this finding of a new DNA trait, it would only take 6-7 years to develop a new variety.
The DNA trait in question will also produce a crop which is resistant to various diseases and has a shorter life cycle. “Usually farmers sow in June and harvest the crop by January, taking 5-6 months to complete the life cycle. The new variant will yield a crop in a shorter duration of 2-3 months,” said Dr C. V. Sameer Kumar, Principal scientist on the project.
For the research, 19 scientists from across the globe worked on a reference set of 292 genomes. “It’s a significan’t research as we have been able to establish that the origin of the crop lies in our country,” said Dr Kumar.
This research is crucial for India as it is the largest producer, consumer and importer of pulses. The Indian government recently increased the import duty on the crop by 10% to encourage the production of the crop in the state.
Among the nine collaborating universities is the Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU). The state university was involved in the practical application of the research, i.e to find if these gene lines possessed the said qualities. “The traditional breeding methods to find resistant variants of pigeon pea are time consuming and complex. Icrisat’s molecular research has made it simpler to find resistant genome lines to produce good quality of crops.” said Chourat Sudhakar, Senior Scientist, Agriculture Research Station , Thandur from PJTSAU.
