Pigeonpea Improvement at ICRISAT______________________________

A number of additional benefits due to hybridity were observed. The early vigor of hybrids allows them to establish well and produce more and deeper roots, thus enhancing drought resistance. Hybrids have also performed much better than non-hybrids under fusarium wilt pressure, even though only wilt-resistant varieties were compared (Table 2). It appears that hybrid vigor conveys an extra degree of resilience (i.e., in addition to specific anti-fungal mechanisms per se) that enables plants to tolerate and produce under severe disease pressure to a greater extent than non-hybrids.

Another benefit of hybrid vigor is increased productivity of vegetative matter (Chauhan et al. 1995). Typically, about two-thirds of pigeonpeas’ above-ground biomass is non-grain, i.e., leaves for grazing or litter (which improves soil fertility), plus stems which are highly valued for fuel (because fuel materials are particularly scarce in the semi-arid tropics). Studies have shown that hybrids produce about 10–15%

more vegetative matter than non- hybrids (Table 3). Women are the primary collectors of fuel supplies both in India and Africa, so these hybrids provide additional benefits to them.