Population Breeding in Pigeonpea: A Review

Issues related to the stagnation of yield in pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L). Millsp.] are as old as seven decades or even more. This may be a consequence a number of factors but ineffectiveness of pure line breeding appears on the top of the list as it was the only method used by each and every crop breeder. The natural out-crossing of the crop, always considered a bane, was never used in the pigeonpea breeding until mid-seventies, when a hybrid breeding programme was initiated jointly by ICRISAT and ICAR. Besides this, some population breeding schemes were also suggested and tried on a limited scale in pigeonpea. The authors in this paper have reviewed various aspects of these population breeding methods. It is concluded that the methods such as stratified mass selection and sybrid breeding have good technical base and can be tried for enhancing seed yield in pigeonpea.