Breeding methods for developing disease resistance varieties in pigeonpea

Abstract

Pigeonpea was once considered as an orphan crop due to lack of research and ignorance by plant breeders but now it is holds second position after chickpea in terms of production in our country. In India pigeonpea is suffered by three major disease including Wilt (Fusarium udum Butler), Phytophthora blight (Phytophthora drechsleri f.sp. cajani) and Sterlity mosaic disease (SMD). There is several breeding method that can be employed in development of disease resistant varieties in pigeonpea. The first wilt resistant variety of pigeonpea in India is ICP 8863 (Maruti). With the advent of advanced breeding techniques (Marker Assisted Selection and genetic engineering) it now becomes very easy to select genotypes having desirable genes.