Garden Pea Improvement in India

Garden pea (Pisum sativum L. var. hortense) is an important legume vegetable grown for its fresh, shelled green seeds rich in proteins, vitamins and minerals. At present over 1000 germplasm lines are available in India. Improvement of garden pea in the country was initiated during the 1940s in IARI and later in several other agricultural universities/ ICAR institutes. Currently, 27 early-varieties and 59 mid-season varieties are under cultivation in india. Initially, focus was on developing early-maturing varieties with high yield and quality. Subsequently, emphasis was laid on developing mid-season varieties having resistance to powdery mildew and other major diseases like Fusarium wilt and rust. Besides, varieties with resistance to bruchids and the leaf miner are also available. In the present paper, an attempt has been made to review current status of improvement of garden pea in India, covering its genetic resources, variability, heritability, genetic advance, heterosis and combining ability, G x E interaction, male sterility, breeding for biotic and abiotic stresses, mutation breeding and biotechnological applications. In recent years, there has been an increase in demand for varieties suited to kharif and early summer seasons, with resistance to powdery mildew, rust, Fusarium ischolar_main wilt/rot and stemfly and also for processing and export. Therefore, future thrust in the improvement of garden pea would be on developing varieties tolerant to biotic and abiotic stresses (mainly high temperature), and also for processing and export.