Four new high-yielding and insect-resistant varieties of pulses have been released for cultivation in different agro-climate conditions. The new varieties have been developed at Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University in Hisar.
The University’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof K. S. Khokhar, said apart from giving higher yields, these varieties were resistant to various diseases and other biotic and abiotic stresses.
The varieties include MH-421 of moong, UH 04-06 (Haryana Urd-1) of black gram (urad) , HFP-529 of green peas and Haryana Kabuli Chana-4 (HK-4) of chickpea (gram).
Whereas moong and urad varieties had been released for cultivation in Haryana state, the varieties of chickpea and green peas have been released for use in north-east and north-west plain zones, respectively, he said.
Prof Khokhar said that in view of the low productivity and ever increasing prices, the varsity scientists had worked hard to meet these challenges and developed improved varieties of pulse crops suitable for different agro-climatic conditions.
The HAU Director of Research, Dr R. P. Narwal, said the HK-4 variety of chickpea has good cooking quality. These qualities would fetch a higher market price for farmers.
Besides, it was high yielding and resistant to wilt — the major disease of gram — and was highly suitable for cultivation in Haryana also.
Likewise, moong variety MH-421 was also high-yielding and resistant to the yellow mosaic virus. Being early maturing (60 days), this variety was suitable under rice-wheat rotation, he said.
The farmers would harvest an average yield of 10-12 quintals per hectare under this cropping system, he said.
Dr Narwal said HFP-529 variety of green peas was a high-yielding, early-maturing dwarf variety with wide adaptability.
It was tolerant to powdery mildew and showed better resistance to rust and Ascochyta blight diseases. UH-04-06 variety of urad was high yielding, early maturing and resistant to yellow mosaic virus, he added.