The Indian research organizations ICAR and IARI have developed a drought-tolerant variety of chickpea

Photo: Collected

Pusa JG 16 variety is resistant to fusarium wilt and stunt disease and has short maturity and yield potential of 2 tonnes per hectare under drought-stress conditions

The Indian government's research organizations ICAR and IARI have developed a drought-tolerant variety of chickpeas 'Pusa JG 16' that has the potential to boost the yield of chickpeas in central India.

Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), in collaboration with Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya (JNKVV) Jabalpur, Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya, Gwalior and ICRISAT, Patancheru, Hyderabad have developed drought hardy and higher yielding chickpea variety 'Pusa JG 16', according to a statement.

The variety will enhance productivity in the Central Zone’s drought-prone areas consisting of Madhya Pradesh, Bundelkhand area of Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Southern Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Gujarat, where terminal drought is a major problem and sometimes leads to 50-100 percent loss of yield.

"Pusa JG 16 variety was developed by using genomic assisted breeding techniques that allowed the precision transfer of drought tolerant genes from ICC 4958 in the parental variety JG 16. The drought tolerance of this variety was affirmed through national level testing by the All India Coordinated Research Programme of Chickpea," it added.

This variety is resistant to fusarium wilt and stunt diseases has short duration maturity (110 days) and yields a potential of 2 tonnes per hectare under drought stress conditions over the recurrent parent JG 16 (1.3 tonnes/hectares).

A K Singh, Director ICAR-IARI expressed happiness at the notification of the chickpea variety 'Pusa JG 16' by the Ministry of Agriculture.

He emphasized that this variety will be a boon for the farmers of drought-prone areas of the Central zone of the country.

Source:
Online/GFMM