Pigeonpea Improvement at ICRISAT_____________________________

From its earliest years, ICRISAT placed great emphasis on collecting, conserving, and characterizing the genetic wealth underpinning its crop mandates. For pigeonpea, this core effort was complemented by excellent science in taxonomy and phylogeny.

A global crop
When ICRISAT began, there was little documentation on the extent and diversity of pigeonpea. The generalization was often heard that pigeonpea was a crop of just one country, India. Detailed analysis by ICRISAT in the 1980s dispelled this notion. While the majority of production (circa 85%) is in India, the distribution of the crop is truly global.

The study, which examined herbarium specimens available in other institutions collection trips, found pigeonpea in 37 countries of Africa, and across most of the countries of Central and South America and the Caribbean (see page 3) (van der Maesen 1983). Much of this is household production in compound gardens, that contributes importantly to poor smallholder family nutrition and food security, yet never reaches national production statistics.

The observation of a wide global distribution of pigeonpea held important ramifications for ICRISAT’s research strategy. It demonstrated that the crop was accepted by rural populations across the tropics, so that research advances, if relevant and useful, would likely meet a receptive audience and lead to significant impact far beyond India. Experience has since confirmed this hunch, as described later in this publication.