Pigeonpea Improvement at ICRISAT_____________________________

The impact
The timing of this breakthrough was fortuitous. By the mid-1980s, the Government of India had become very concerned that productivity increases in oilseeds and pulses were lagging far behind those of cereals, necessitating massive imports to meet basic food needs – estimated at US$ 2 billion during 1981–86 alone.

Responding to a special plea from the Government in 1987, ICRISAT partnered with ICAR and state extension organizations in a major on-farm testing and demonstration initiative across seven states, called LEGOFTEN (Legumes On-Farm Testing and Evaluation Nursery). From 1989–91, LEGOFTEN was generously supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

In collaboration with ICAR, ICRISAT’s LEGOFTEN staff met with extension professionals from across the country to study local practices, identify constraints, and plan the trials. The results were impressive: in 67 trials over the period, the improved variety/management package demonstrated a mean yield increase of 58%, while maturing months sooner than crops grown in the traditional system. Public awareness activities spread the news throughout rural areas of central India. The technology was shared with NARS across Asia through special support from the Asian Development Bank for the Cereals and Legumes Asia Network (CLAN).

Farmers were quick to adopt these materials. ICPL 87, released as Pragati (‘Progress’ in Hindi) in central and southern India in 1986, immediately became popular in the drier regions of Maharashtra and Karnataka, and now covers over 150,000 ha in these states.

A detailed impact study (Bantilan and Parthasarathy 1998) found that the

variety/management package resulted in an average 93% yield increase over the systems it replaced.

Another major reason for adoption was that it enabled double cropping: the pigeonpea matured early enough so that farmers could still sow their staple postrainy crops of sorghum, chickpea, and wheat. The bottom-line benefit to the overall enterprise was a 30% increase in net farm income. Interviews revealed that farmers also perceived, and valued, benefits to soil fertility and erosion control from adding pigeonpea to their rotations.

The impact of the short-duration pigeonpea research thrust in central India is under further study by an Australian economist (Ryan 1998). He assessed the costs of participation of all four institutions (ICRISAT, ICAR, ACIAR, and the University of Queensland) and the growing benefits from adoption in central India, and projected these to a point 30 years from the 1978 inception of the Project, i.e., to 2007. He estimates that the net present value of the investment in 1978 terms was US$ 117 million, generating an internal rate of return of more than 27%.