Pigeonpea improvement: An amalgam of breeding and genomic research     

Sameer Kumar Chanda Venkata  Ganga Rao Nadigatla Veera Prabha Rama  Rachit K. Saxena  Kulbhushan Saxena  Hari D. Upadhyaya  Moses Siambi  Said N. Silim  Kothapally Narasimha Reddy  Anupama J. Hingane  Mamta Sharma  Shivali Sharma  Stephen Dominic Lyimo  Rose Ubwe  Meshack Makenge  Kananji Gad  Paul Kiprotich Kimurto  Manuel Amane  Kennedy Kanenga  Yuventino Obong  Emanuel Monyo  Chris Ojiewo  Nagesh Kumar Mallela Venkata  Jaganmohan Polineni Rao  Prashanthi Lakkireddy  Sudhakar Chourat  Indraprakash Singh  Sobhan Sajja  Shruthi Hirikara Beliappa  Rajeev K. Varshney 《Plant Breeding》2019,138(4):445-454

In the past five decades, constant research has been directed towards yield improvement in pigeonpea resulting in the deployment of several commercially acceptable cultivars in India. Though, the genesis of hybrid technology, the biggest breakthrough, enigma of stagnant productivity still remains unsolved. To sort this productivity disparity, genomic research along with conventional breeding was successfully initiated at ICRISAT. It endowed ample genomic resource providing insight in the pigeonpea genome combating production constraints in a precise and speedy manner. The availability of the draft genome sequence with a large‐scale marker resource, oriented the research towards trait mapping for flowering time, determinacy, fertility restoration, yield attributing traits and photo‐insensitivity. Defined core and mini‐core collection, still eased the pigeonpea breeding being accessible for existing genetic diversity and developing stress resistance. Modern genomic tools like next‐generation sequencing, genome‐wide selection helping in the appraisal of selection efficiency is leading towards next‐generation breeding, an awaited milestone in pigeonpea genetic enhancement. This paper emphasizes the ongoing genetic improvement in pigeonpea with an amalgam of conventional breeding as well as genomic research.  相似文献   

Productivity of Jatropha curcas under smallholder farm conditions in Kenya     

Miyuki Iiyama  David Newman  Cristel Munster  Meshack Nyabenge  Gudeta W. Sileshi  Violet Moraa  James Onchieku  Jeremias Gasper Mowo  Ramni Jamnadass 《Agroforestry Systems》2013,87(4):729-746

With the global bioenergy boom, the planting of jatropha (Jatropha curcas) was widely promoted by the private sector and non-government organizations as one of the candidate tree species for bioenergy in Kenya. This was motivated by the belief that it grows easily with minimal management requirements. The present study attempts to determine whether management practices by smallholder farmers, which are heterogeneous, are optimal for jatropha yields in Kenya. A survey conducted in different agro-ecological zones showed that yields are very low under Kenyan farm conditions. Regardless of the age and management condition, 41 % of the farmers obtained no seed yield, while 79 % obtained up to 0.1 kg/tree. This is dismal in comparison with the figures (up to 2.0 kg/tree) reported from elsewhere for 1–5 year old trees grown under similar conditions. Examination of farmer management practices indicated that irrigation, manuring and weeding, in order to maximize yields, could be offset by misapplication of other components especially, selection of planting materials, timing of planting and choice of intercrops during the establishment phases. This indicates that the anticipated high yields have not been achieved partly because growers are still using unimproved germplasm, management practices are sub-optimal, and the biophysical boundaries of high jatropha yield are poorly defined. Thus at the current stage, jatropha should not be grown by smallholder farmers in Kenya because of low or dismal productivity. If jatropha is to play a role in the pro-poor bioenergy development, future projects need to identify management recommendations that optimize yields. This also needs to take into consideration the preferences and constraints of farm households on labor and land allocation to other farm and livelihood activities.  相似文献