Breeding Climate Resilient and Future Ready Pulse Crops

This edited volume covers the application of modern breeding tools for developing climate-smart pulse crop cultivars. The primary focus is on utilizing available genomic resources and next-generation breeding technologies such as genome-wide association mapping, genomic selection, genome editing, and accelerated breeding pipelines for the rapid development of stress-resilient, systems-specific pulse cultivars.

Pulses contribute to 10% of global daily protein intake and 5% of energy. Their ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen and serve as an alternative protein source to meat makes them crucial in combating global warming. With the global population expected to reach 9.8 billion by 2050, pulses production needs to increase by at least 70% to meet demand. However, pulses production is facing growing biotic and abiotic challenges, exacerbated by climate change. Thus, developing next-generation climate-smart cultivars is essential to ensure food and nutritional security. Recent efforts by global and national breeding communities have led to the discovery of new genomic resources, shifting breeding from phenotype-based to genome-based approaches. These advances integrate rapid generation advancement pipelines with genomic-assisted breeding, trait mapping, and genome editing tools.

This book is valuable for agricultural scientists, scholars, and graduate students involved in pulse crop improvement. It also serves as a reference for policymakers and research grant managers in formulating pulse research programs.

Dr. Manish K Pandey completed his PhD in Plant Genetics from Osmania University while working at ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research (IIRR), Hyderabad, India. He had postdoctoral research experience at the University of Georgia, USA. Currently, he leads the Groundnut and Pigeonpea Genomics, Prebreeding, and Bioinformatics research at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad, India. He is also elected fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, India, and his contributions are well-cited, with 11953 Google Scholar citations, an h-index of 60 and an i10-index of 169.

Dr. M G Mallikarjuna is a Scientist (Genetics and Plant Breeding) at the Division of Genetics, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (ICAR-IARI), New Delhi, India.  He graduated in Agricultural Sciences from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, India. He completed his post-graduation from Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University, Hyderabad and a doctoral degree from the ICAR-IARI, New Delhi, with gold medals for his outstanding academic performance. He was awarded several research grants from various national funding agencies. His current research interest includes the application of genomics and systems biology to understand the stress responses in crops and model plants, deciphering the evolutionary snapshots of gene families and stress-resilient breeding. To date, he has 35 research articles in peer-reviewed journals, ten book chapters, and three books. Besides, he has been involved in developing 15 hybrid varieties. He is also actively involved in post-graduation teaching and guiding research scholars in their project work.

Dr Lohithaswa is currently working as a Professor of Genetics and Plant Breeding at the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore. He has obtained Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Genetics and Plant Breeding from UAS, Bangalore and later served as a postdoctoral researcher at the Plant Genome Mapping Laboratory, University of Georgia, Athens, USA. He has taught many courses for undergraduate and graduate students and received several awards for his scientific contributions. His work on comparative genomics-driven markers discovery helped in identifying markers that work across Poaceae and legume lineage. He has wide experience in QTL mapping, marker-assisted selection and genomic selection in cowpea, pigeonpea, rice and maize. He has successfully handled several national and international research projects and published over 150 research papers in journals with high impact factors. He was also involved in Finger millet and Horse gram genome sequencing. He has also developed and released twenty crop varieties.

Dr. Muraleedhar S. Aski is a Senior Scientist specializing in Lentil and Mungbean Breeding at the Division of Genetics, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. Previously, he served as a Chickpea Breeder at ICAR-IIPR Kanpur. His research focuses on crop improvement using conventional, molecular, and transgenic methods. Dr. Aski earned his bachelor's degree from UAS Dharwad, a master's from ANGRAU, Bapatla, and a PhD in Genetics from IARI, New Delhi. He has played a key role in developing 15 legume crop varieties, including high-protein chickpea IPC 2005-62 and India's first biofortified lentil, L 4717 (Pusa Agethi). As a faculty member, he teaches and supervises graduate and PhD students. His work on genetic resources, stress evaluations, and nutrient gene mapping has earned him the GRISAAS 2019 Young Scientist Award. His research is well-cited, with 994 Google Scholar citations, an H-index of 17, and an i10-index of 30.

Dr. Sanjeev Gupta is a distinguished scientist in plant breeding at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), where he currently serves as Assistant Director General (Oilseed and Pulses) in New   Delhi. With over 32 years of expertise in grain legume genetics, he has developed 18 high-yielding cultivars, including the world's first early-maturing mungbean variety, ‘Virat,’ which matures in just 52-55 days. His leadership as a national coordinator has significantly boosted mungbean and urban production by over 2.5 times in eight years, which has marched India towards self-sufficiency in pulses. He has led multiple national and international projects on molecular marker-assisted breeding and climate-resilient agriculture.   An accomplished author, he has published nearly 125 research papers and edited six books, including popular titles from Springer. A Fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, he has received numerous awards for his contributions to agricultural science.