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Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan L. Millsp.): An ideal crop for sustainable agriculture
Book chapter

Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan L. Millsp.): An ideal crop for sustainable agriculture

R.K. Saxena, K.B. Saxena and R.K. Varshney
Advances in Plant Breeding Strategies: Legumes, pp.409-429
Springer
2019
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Abstract

Pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.] is traditionally cultivated as an annual crop in semi-arid regions of the world. It has a number of characteristics such as diverse maturity time, drought tolerance and natural out-crossing which makes it unique among legumes. These traits not only allow its cultivation in diverse environments and cropping systems, but also permit implementation of different breeding methods. Pigeonpea is a crop of sustainable agriculture and poor crop management, exposure to diseases and pests coupled with unpredictable rains hinder crop improvement activities. However, recently partial out-crossing has been exploited to develop cytoplasmic male-sterility (CMS) based hybrid breeding technology. Thus far, three hybrids have been released for cultivation with yield advantages of 30–50% over standard varieties. Pigeonpea R&D now also enjoys a wealth of genomics resources such as a draft genome sequence, resequencing data, candidate genes and markers associated with key traits. Genomics and breeding efforts are underway to make pigeonpea a more sustainable crop and to unlock the genetic diversity present in germplasm to develop new cultivars rapidly.

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#13 Climate Action
#15 Life on Land

Source: InCites

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