Lakshmi : High yielding redgram for rabi

Lakshmi, the high yielding and disease tolerant redgram pigeonepea Cajanus cajan released by the Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University (ANDRAU), Rajendranagar, Andhra Pradesh, is becoming popular among the growers as rabi season crop. This high yielding variety was developed at the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru, Hyderabad, in collaboration with the scientists at the Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS), LAM, Guntur.

This high yielding redgram is ideally suited for cultivation in Guntur, Krishna, Nellore and Parakasam districts as a rainfed crop during rabi. In Warangal and Khammam districts it can be raised using the receding soil moisture in the Godavari flood-prone areas, according to the scientists at RARS, Guntur. In Andhra Pradesh, redgram is generally grown in kharif season as an inter-crop. The crop often gets damaged severely by the Helicoverpa pod borer as the peak flowering season of the crop coincides with the peak activity of the insect pest. Pest monitoring studies over the years reveled that the pest activity was more during September to December. The scientists also found that if the redgram was sown in rabi, the crop would come to flowering only in January and thus escape the pod borer menace.

This new cropping pattern proved successful, and farmers readily adopted this profitable proposition. The new variety tested in the name ICPL 85063 is bold-seeded with resistance to sterility mosaic virus disease and moderately resistant to wilt disease. It has not been found to have resistance to any insect pest. The variety has an indeterminate growth habit with long primary branches and dark green foliage. It grew to a mean height of 120cm in rabi season. When grown in kharif, it attains a mean height of 160cm. In rabi, the variety matures in 120 days, and the kharif-sown crop matures in 170 days. It has recorded an average yield of 2000 kg per hectare under normal field conditions.

It has got good dal recovery and higher protein content. As a pure crop of redgram, this variety will need a seed of 10 to 12 kg per hectare in kharif, where a spacing of 90 cm by 20cm. For the rabi season crop, a closer spacing 45cm by 10cm is adopted, and the seed rate will be 35 to 40kg per hectare. A nutrient dose of 20kg nitrogen and 50kg phosphorus is recommended as basal dressing. The rabi redgram is best sown between September and October 15.