______________________________From Orphan Crop to Pacesetter |
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| A new wave of hybrid research is launched The consortium of interested institutions brought together by the initial hybrid success has now turned its energies towards developing a cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) system. A CMS will bypass many of the operational difficulties of the nuclear male sterility approach, particularly the high labor requirement for rogueing (and seed yield reduction that entails). The consortium embarked upon a large-scale program of crossing cultivated pigeonpea with wild species, in hopes of identifying genetic incompatibilities between wild cytoplasm and the cultivated nucleus. Convened by ICRISAT, this consortium has partitioned
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out the crossing and progeny selection assignments thus:
ICRISAT also provides training and technical backstopping to the consortium. For example, ICRISAT has carried out embryo rescue operations to help complete some of the crosses. The consortium has been working so well that, beginning in 1998, the major private-sector partner (MAHYCO) began to contribute funds to ensure ICRISAT’s continued capacity to participate. Rapid progress has been achieved since the
initiative began in 1990 (Ariyanayagam
et al. 1995). |
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