Chickpea and horsegram to grow after rice in eastern India. Validated RNRRS Output.
Abstract
This is one of 280 summaries describing key outputs from the projects run by DFID's 10-year Renewable Natural Resources Research Strategy (RNRRS) programmes.
Summary for Project title: R8099: Participatory plant breeding in rice and maize in eastern India.
Farmers in Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal favour new, early-maturing chickpeas to grow after rice in the post-rainy season. Other qualities they look for are lots of branches and pods, and red seeds that cook well. They like the same qualities in horsegram except that the seeds must be creamy. In these areas of eastern India, chickpea is the main crop planted after monsoon rice and is grown mostly in poor quality soils. But chickpea productivity is very low. The yield of horsegram, grown on degraded hillsides as a late rainy-season crop, is also low. The new varieties perform much better and widely replace old varieties and landraces because farmers were involved in choosing and testing them.
The CD has the following information for this output: Description, Validation, Current Situation, Current Promotion, Impacts On Poverty, Environmental Impact, Annex. Attached PDF (14 pp.) taken from the CD.
Citation
PSP17, New technologies, new processes, new policies: tried-and-tested and ready-to-use results from DFID-funded research, Research Into Use Programme, Aylesford, Kent, UK, ISBN 978-0-9552595-6-2, p 17.