The document discusses varietal maintenance and quality seed production in pulse crops. It emphasizes the importance of pulses as a major source of protein in India and outlines strategies to increase pulse production, including promotion of improved varieties, quality seed production, and improved production technologies. It describes the steps involved in variety development and maintenance, including germplasm collection and evaluation, selection, variety release, and multiplication through nucleus, breeder, foundation, and certified seed classes. Methods of varietal maintenance to maintain genetic and morphological purity depend on the crop's pollination behavior and may include the plant-to-row or reserve seed methods. Field and seed standards are outlined for different pulse crops.

1. VARIETAL
MAINTENANCE &
QUALITY SEED
PRODUCTION IN
PULSE CROPS
Dr. VIRENDER SINGH LATHER
Principal Scientist
(Genetics & Cytogenetic)
ICAR-IARI Regional Station,
Karnal

2. Pulses Overview
• Main protein sources for large vegetarian Indian
• World production: Stagnant at 60 million tons in last 80 Year
• Largest producers : India, China, Brazil, Australia, Myanmar
• Major exporters : Australia, Canada and Myanmar
• Major importers: India, Pakistan & developing countries
• India: largest producer, consumer and importer of pulses.
• Major producers : MP, UP, AP, Rajasthan, Maha, Karnataka
• Indian pulses output: Highest 19.57 million tons in 2013
• Annual domestic pulses consumption : 23 million tons.

3. Concerns of Pulse crops:
• Low productivity of Varieties(half to cereals)
• High risks of aboitic & biotic stresses
LOW PROFITS (Per acre) :
Pulse Crops : Rs 8,000-14,000
Rice & Wheat : Rs 20,000-30,000
Sugarcane : Rs 30,000-50,000
LOW PROFITS - PRODUCTIVITY - CAUSED SHIFTING OF
PULSES CULTIVATION :
 Rainfed and marginal lands
 Zonal shifting from N-W to C-S India
INDIAN SCENARIO of PULSE CROPS ?

4. Then, WHY GROW PULSE CROPS ?
PROVIDE NUTRITIONAL SECURITY OF INDIA
CHEAP SOURCES OF PROTIEN (18-26 %) FOR VEGETARIAN DIET
• Custodians :
Soil Fertility,
Water- Climate-
Friendly Agriculture
• Fixed atmospheric N :
• ~ 60-400 kg N /ha through
Rhizobium Symbiosis in soil
• Need low Inputs-water
• Release low GHGs

5. Strategies :Increase Pulses Production
• Promotion : -
Improved Varieties (500 varieties released since 1970)
Quality Seed Production (Increase SRR)
Improved Production Technologies (Narrow down
the Gap between actual & potential yield)
• Policy Support : To address various issues like :
 Infrastructure for life saving irrigation,
 Quality input supply,
 Storage, buffers stock for seed and grains,
 Remunerative MSP –Sure marketing.
• There is tremendous scope to popularize pulses as
'Health Food' or 'Nutri-Rich Food'.

6. Steps of Variety Development & Maintenance
• Germplasm Collection, Introduction, Maintenance & its Uses
• Creation of Variation
– Hybridization
– Polyploidy
– Mutation
– Recombination, Genetic drift
• Selection: Desirable traits combination in improved genotype
• Evaluation (VCU): GOI DAC-ICAR- AICRP: Station, MLT, CVT, FLD.
• Variety Release : CVRC /SVRC : basis on DUS + VCU
• Multiplication : Four stages monitored by Govt. /Institutes
- Nucleus
- Breeder
- Foundation
- Certified
- Labeled seed
• Seed Act 1966 control: Multiplication & Distribution of variety

7. Maintenance Breeding or Variety maintenance
• Maintenance Breeding & Variety maintenance, synonymous
to each other,
• Both are use for maintaining the genetic purity of release
variety.
• Both used Synonymously just like Bombay or Mumbai,
Washroom or Bathroom.
• Technically Breeding denotes “ Directed evolution or
improving the genetics make up for VCU
• Where as objectives and Procedures of maintenance : “ To
Maintain the genetical and morphological purity (DUS:
distinctness, uniformity , stability) of release variety” .
• However, Variety maintenance is more appropriate

8. Deterioration
of Varieties
Genetic Causes:
• Developmental variations
• Mechanical mixtures
• Mutations
• Natural crossing
• Minor genetic variations
• Selective influence of
diseases
• Techniques of the plant
breeder
Agronomic Causes:
• Selection of suitable agro-climatic region
• Selection of seed plot
• Isolation of seed crops
• Preparation of land
• Selection of variety
• Selection of Seed
• Time of Planting
• Seed rate
• Seed Treatment
• Method of sowing
• Nutrition
• Irrigation
• Rouging
• Weed control
• Disease and insect control
• Harvesting and threshing of seed crops
• Drying of seeds
• Pre-processing and transit storage

9. Scheme showing cultivar breeding,
maintenance and multiplication in India

10. Generation System of Seed Multiplication
• (Variety Maintenance)
NUCLEUS SEED
BREEDER SEED
FOUNDATION SEED
CERTIFIED SEED

12. Variety Maintenance & seed production
• Governed by Seed Act-1966 through Institutes, DAC,
CSC, CVRC, CSTL, Certification agencies etc.
• legal act with punishments including imprisonments eg:
Manager Seed , Liberty Seed Karnal in 1990’s.
• Based on DUS-VCU with for sale
 Compulsory labeling of seed for sale
but optional certification of seed.
• Seed must be morphologically & genetically pure as per
the seed standards of CSC
• Seed must be identifiable as to its kind or variety which
legally debar sale of encapsulated seed in India

13. DAC Distribution & Monitoring of Breeder Seed
• BSP-I : PROFORMA issued by PC to concerned breeder to
whom BSP is allocated for the crop- variety.
• BSP-II : PROFORMA submitted by crop breeder to PC unit
after compilation of sowing of BS production plot
• BSP-III: PROFORMA submitted by breeder to PC unit after
completion of monitoring by monitoring team.
• BSP-IV : PROFORMA submitted by breeders after harvesting,
threshing, cleaning and grading of breeder seed.
• It contains information on actual breeder seed of different
varieties produced by the concerned crop breeder.
• On the basis of this proforma, seed division of DAC&FW
arranges lifting of the breeder seeds by indenters.
• BSP-V : PROFORMA submitted by breeders to PC unit and
contains information on lifting of breeder seed by indenters.

14. PULSES CROP SEED PRODUCTION
• Pulses/Grain legume: Edible dry seed of legumes
• Term pulse is derived from the Latin word puls
meaning a thick soup made from grain legumes
• Soybean-Peanut: leguminous -high protein
crops but not regarded as pulses but oilseed
• Similarly vegetable crop garden pea is not pulses.
• All the leguminous plants are not Pulses but all
pulses are leguminous which form symbiotic
relationship with rhizobium bacteria to fix
atmospheric nitrogen and enhanced soil fertility.

15. FAO recognizes 11 primary pulses.
• 1) Dry beans (Phaseolus spp. including
several species now in Vigna)
– Kidney bean, navy bean, pinto bean,
haricot bean (Phaseolus vulgaris)
– Lima bean, butter bean (Phaseolus
lunatus)
– Azuki bean, adzuki bean (Vigna
angularis)
– Mung bean, golden gram, green
gram (Vigna radiata)
– Black gram, urad (Vigna mungo)
– Scarlet runner bean (Phaseolus
coccineus)
– Ricebean (Vigna umbellata)
– Moth bean (Vigna aconitifolia)
– Tepary bean (Phaseolus acutifolius)
• 2) Dry broad beans (Vicia faba)
– Horse bean (Vicia faba equina)
– Broad bean (Vicia faba)
– Field bean (Vicia faba)
• 3) Dry peas (Pisum spp .: P. sativum var.
Sativum; P. sativum var. arvense)
• 4) Chickpea, garbanzo, Bengal gram (Cicer
arietinum)
• 5) Dry cowpea, black-eyed pea, blackeye
bean (Vigna unguiculata )
• 6) Pigeon pea, Arhar /Toor, cajan pea,
Congo bean, gandules (Cajanus cajan)
• 7) Lentil (Lens culinaris)
• 8) Bambara groundnut, earth pea (Vigna
subterranea)
• 9)Vetch, common vetch (Vicia sativa)
• 10)Lupins (Lupinus spp.)
• 11) Minor pulses, including:
– Lablab, hyacinth bean (Lablab
purpureus)
– Jack bean (Canavalia ensiformis),
sword bean (Canavalia gladiata)
– Winged bean (Psophocarpus
tetragonolobus)
– Velvet bean, cowitch (Mucuna
pruriens var. utilis)
– Yam bean (Pachyrhizus erosus)

16. CROPS Area lakh
ha
Per cent Productivity
kg/ha
States
Chickpea 73.7 38.71 799.19 MP (32.97%), Maharashtra (18.36%),
Rajasthan (16.70%), AP (8.55%), Karnataka
(8.21%), Uttar Pradesh (6.85%)
Pegionpea 36.3 19.07 760.33 Maharashtra (32.37%), Karnataka (18.76%),
Andhra Pradesh (12.75%), Uttar Pradesh
(10.14%), Madhya Pradesh (9.64%) and
Gujarat (6.69%)
Mungbean 34.4 18.07 406.98 Rajasthan (30.81%), Maharashtra (19.51%),
Karnataka (15.35%), Andhra Pradesh
(12.79%), Orissa (7.41%), Tamil Nadu (4.97
%) and Uttar Pradesh (2.09%)
Uradbean 31 16.28 451.61 Maharashtra (18.55%), Andhra Pradesh
(16.23%), Madhya Pradesh (18.55%), Uttar
Pradesh (12.61%), Tamil Nadu (11.00),
Rajasthan (4.68), Orissa (4.84%) and
Karnataka (4.06)
Lentil 15 7.88 633.33 Madhya Pradesh (40.53%), Uttar Pradesh
(37.60%), Bihar (10.80%) and West Bengal
(4.00%)
Total 190.4 651.2 Minor Pulses: Rajmash,
Mothbean, Dry pea & cowpea,
Rice bean etc.
Major Pulse Crops in India

17. List of crop varieties recommended for Haryana, Punjab and Delhi(NCR)
Crop Varieties
Chickpea /
Bengal gram
BG-1103, C-235,HC-1, HC-3, HC-5, HK-1, HK-2, HK-4,(HK
05-169),GPF 2, L 551, L 550, GNG 1581.
Field Pea DDR 55, DDR23, DDR 27, HFP-4,HFP 8909, Hariyal,
HFP 9426, HFP 529, Rachna, Pant P 74, IPF 5-19, KPMR
522, DMR 7, Aman.
Lentil L 4076, L 4147, L 4594, LL 147, Sapna, Garima,Pant L 4, IPL
406, DPL 6, DPL 15, PL 639, DPL 62 (Sheri), LL 699,PL 406,
PL 639,
Mungbean Pusa Vishal,, Pusa 9531, Pusa Ratna, Pusa 9072, Pusa 672,
MH-421, MH 2-15, Muskan, Basanti, ML 267, SML 668,
ML 818/ PAU911, ML 5,PM 1, PM-5, HUM 2,Ganga 8, IPM
2-3, MUM 2.
Urdbean UG 218, PU 19, PU31, Mash 1008, Mash 414, Mash 338,
Uttara, PDU 1,Mash 479, Mash 414, Mash 338, Shekar-2,
WBU 108.
Pigeonpea/
Arhar
Pusa 991, Pusa 992, Pusa 2001, Pusa 2002 , UPAS 120,
Manak , Paras.

18. Method of Variety Maintenance depend
on Crop Pollination Behaviour
• Pulses are highly SP except pigeon pea often
CP out crossing extent up to 25-30 % (Saxena
et al. 1990)
• Pulses flowers are cleistogamous , open after
pollination which ensure high self pollination.
• Method & seed standards of SP crops are used
in Pulses.
• Method & seed standards of Pigeon pea are
different including its hybrid seed programme.

19. Variety Maintenance in Pulses
Genetic variation appear within a seed stock for many reasons including
 Mechanical contamination,
 Admixture resulting from undesirable
pollination/recombination,
 Residual segregation,
 Mutation.
 Continuous intervention required for maintaining PURITY
(morphological and genetic purity of the variety).
 Sponsored breeder-Institute is responsible for variety
maintenance for Nucleus & Breeder seeds
 where as Foundation and Certified seed by seed producing
agencies through seed certification.

20. Critical Gap in availability of Pulses Seed
(SRR / Production of Quality seed)
Pulses sown areas : 239 lakh ha
Seed requirement : 101 lakh q.
Seed Supply : 20-25 lakh q.
SRR : 20 %

21. Methods of Pulses
Variety Maintenance
• Plant to row method:
• Parental material received from breeder
raised in small uniform plot .
• Select fair number (300-500) of healthy
plants typical of the cultivar and marked
them for progeny testing .
• Harvested separately the Seeds of the
marked true- to- type plants only.
• Seeds of each plant are planted in single
3 m long PRT(Plant to progeny row)
• Assessed critically Progeny rows many
times during growing season.
• Progeny rows that deviate in one or
other characteristics are discarded and
entire plant progeny rows is rejected.
• Selected and bulked only plant
progenies that are uniform and true to
type as nucleus seed stage-I.
• Used nucleus seed for planting larger
breeder seed plots.
• If breeder seed requirement is more,
then another cycle of nucleus seed
production is followed as nucleus
seed stage-II.

22. IARI CHICKPEA BREEDER SEED PRODUCTION PLOT

23. Variety Maintenance in Lentil by Plant Row Method

24. Reserve Seed Method in Pigeon pea
 Single plants selected, harvested & threshed individually
 Single plant seed examined critically in the lab: The single
plants seed is divided in two parts with same serial number
 A part of single plant seed used to raise plant-row for
evaluation
 Rest of seed is kept as reserve
 Plant rows are critically examined throughout growth stages
 Selected (retained) rows harvested & threshed individually
 Plant progeny seed examined for seed characters
 The reserve seed of the selected rows is bulked to
constitute nucleus seed

25. Field Standards
A) Field Standards: Isolation
requirements
Minimum distance (meters)
Mungbean, Urbean,
chickpea, Lentil, Field pea
Pigeonpea(Arhar)
Foundation Certified Foundation Certified
Fields of other varieties or Fields of same
variety not conforming to varietal purity
requirements for certification.
10 5 250 100
b) Field Standards: Specific
requirements : Factor
Maximum permitted (%)
Foundation Certified
Off-types 0.1 0.2
Plants affected by seed borne diseases 0.1 0.2
Genetic purity
Standards
Nucleus Seed : Backbone of quality seed programme
Seed Class Genetic
purity
(Minimum
%)
Foundation
Seed
99.00
Certified
Seed
98.00

26. Seed Standards for Pulse Crops
Standards
Kharif Pulses Rabi Pulses
Mung, Urd Arhar,
Pigeonpea
Chickpea, Field
pea
Lentil
Found-
ation
Certi
fied
Found-
ation
Certi
fied
Founda-
tion
Certified Found-
ation
Certified
Pure seed
(minimum)
98.0 98.0 98.0 98.0 98.0 98.0 98.0 98.0
Inert matter
(maximum)
2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0
Other crop seeds
(maximum)
5 / Kg 10 / Kg 5 / Kg 10 / Kg None 5 / Kg 5 / Kg 10 / Kg
Weed seeds
(maximum)
5 / Kg 10 / Kg 5 / Kg 10 / Kg None None 10 / Kg 20 / Kg
Other
distinguishable
varieties
(maximum)
10 / Kg 20 / Kg 10 / Kg 20 / Kg 5 / Kg 10 / Kg 10 / Kg 20 / Kg
Germination
including hard
seeds (minimum)
(%)
75 75 75 75 85 85 75 75
Moisture
(maximum)
9.0 9.0 9.0 9.0 9.0 9.0 9.0 9.0
For vapour-proof
containers
(maximum)(%)
8.0 8.0 8.0 8.0 8.0 8.0 8.0 8.0

27. Maintenance of Parental
Lines of Hybrid Pigeon pea
• Hybrid pigeon pea is based on
cytoplasmic-Genetic male-
sterility (CGMS) system.
• Seed production of pigeon pea
hybrids involves large scale seed
production of A-, B-, R- lines, &
hybrid combination (A x R).
• For seed production of A-line,
breeder seed of both A- and B-
lines are planted using a female:
male row ratio of 4:1.
• Obcordate hybrids: For easy
identification of off- types in the
parental lines obcordate trait
(single gene recessive) has been
introgressed in male sterile line
(Sameer Kumar et al. 2014).

30. Best Example of Varietal maintenance in Pulses
• Best example of Varietal maintenance in Pulses are varieties C-
235 of chickpea, T-9 of Urdbean, which was released in 1960’s
and still cover major areas.
• MASCAVI of Berseem (Egyptian clover, Trifolium alexandrinum L) is
best eg. of varietal maintenance in leguminous crop which is in
cultivation since thousand yrs in Egypt as landrace Masgawi released
in Calofornia(USA)/Austrailia as Muscowi in 1902, India as MASCAVI
in 1965 covering major part of the world
• Technically Easy job due to high self pollination ensure by its
cleistogamous / chasmogamous flowers.
• Adopt seed-isolation standards of CSC (Central Seed Committee) as
per Seed Act-1966

31. THANKS
INDIA FIRST
MECHANICAL
HARVESTING
FRIENDLY
CHICKPEA
VARIETY
HC-5