CONTENTS

VOLUME 21, No. 4 OCTOBER - DECEMBER, 2010

News .......................................... 2 IIPR Connects Global Climate

Network Canadian Scientist Visits IIPR Sudden Incidence of Mango Mealy

bug R. iceryoides in Pigeonpea Heavy Infestation of Root-knot

Nematode in PigeonpeaResearch Highlights ............... 3-5 Unique Genotypes Developed Promising Lentil Genotype Residue Retention Conserves Soil

Moisture Ribozyme Technology for developing

Yellow Mosaic Resistant Pulses Pulses Restore Soil Organic

Carbon Edible Products from Pigeonpea

Milling By-product Natural Parasitization of Leaf

Webber in Late Pigeonpea Predators for Insect Pests in Early

PigeonpeaTransfer of Technology ........... 5-6 Skill Oriented Farmers’ Training State Level Dalhan Seminar Field Days OrganisedPersonnel ............................... 6-7Director’s Desk ........................... 8

EDITORIAL COMMITTEEDr. N. Nadarajan ChairmanDr. C. Chattopadhyay MemberDr. P.S. Basu MemberDr. M.S. Venkatesh MemberDr. Aditya Pratap MemberMr. D. Upadhyaya Member

Secretary

RAC Applauded Institute’s Achievements

The 16th Research AdvisoryCommittee (RAC) meeting ofthe Institute was held on October 27-28, 2010 under the chairmanship ofDr. S.C. Modgal, Former ViceChancellor of G.B. Pant Universityof Agriculture and Technology,Pantnagar. Dr. V.D. Patil, AssistantDirector General (O&P), Dr. O.P.Dubey, Ex. ADG (O&P), ICAR,Dr. Shanker Lal,Ex. Director, IIPR,Dr. M.N. Khare,Ex. Dean, JNKVV,Jabalpur, Dr. N.Nadarajan, Director,IIPR and Dr. MohanSingh, MemberSecretary participatedin the meeting alongwith all HoDs, PCsand I/C Sections of the Institute.

Dr. N. Nadarajan apprised thehouse about the progress in R&Dactivities of the Institute during theperiod, new initiatives and majorachievements in col laborativeprogrammes with national andinternational organizations. Heinformed that two new varieties viz.,IPCK 2004-29 (kabuli chickpea) andIPF 4-9 (fieldpea) were released duringthe period. In addition, new varieties ofchickpea, mungbean, lenti l and

pigeonpea have been identified fordifferent zones. In pigeonpea, one shortduration genotype was identified, whichflowered in 60 days and attainedmaturity in 95 days.

Significant progress has beenmade in identifying profitable pulsebased production systems. Forexample maize-wheat-mungbean gave

the highest system productivity underupland conditions, while rice-wheat-mungbean gave the highest productivityin lowland conditions. Residueincorporation along with inclusion ofpulses in the system was mostbeneficial, both in terms of increasingsystem productivity and improving soilquality. Application of weedicideImazethapyr was found effectiveagainst major weeds in different pulsesduring kharif season. Dr. Nadarajanhighlighted the impact of thetechnology developed by the Institute

2 Indian Institute of Pulses Research

on farmers’ income. He informed thata farmer of Fatehpur district, Mr.Rajesh Patel earned a profit of Rs. 2.1lakh from 4.2 ha land by growingmungbean during summer 2010.

The RAC appreciated the on-going programmes and applauded thewhole scientific community of IIPR fordemonstrating the positive impact ofthese technologies at farmers’ fields.

IIPR Connects GlobalClimate NetworkThe Institute has recently installed

an advance automatic weather stationwith a state-of-art, robust andcompletely wireless climate monitoringsystem. The probes are capable of dataacquisition at very high speed andtransmit/upload signals through globalsystem mobile or GPRS to the websitewww.fieldclimate.com. The incredible

amount of climate data stored in thesystem are being utilized to monitorthe long-term impact of climate changeon pulses productivity, weather-basedcrop modelling, disease and pestincidence, irrigation scheduling andfrost forecasting.

Canadian ScientistVisits IIPR

Dr. Joyce Irene Boye, ResearchScientist from Food Research andDevelopment Centre, Qubec, Canadavisited IIPR on October 12, 2010 to

explore opportunities of scientif iccollaboration between Canada and Indiain the areas of value addition and postharvest technology of pulses. The visitwas a follow-up action of the agreementsigned between Agriculture Ministersof India and Canada in January, 2010.Dr. Joyce had a detailed discussion withDr. N. Nadarajan, Director andDr. Prasoon Verma regarding pulsemilling and value addition. Areas suchas increasing mil ling eff iciency,breeding technologies to reduce anti-nutritional factors, utilization of pulseby-products and blending of pulse flourfor value addition were identified forpossible bilateral collaboration.

Sudden Incidence ofMango Mealy bugR. iceryoides in

PigeonpeaThe mango mealy bug

Rastrococcus iceryoides (Green) isknown to be notorious insect pest inmango. There was a sudden incidenceof the mango mealy bug R. iceryoidesin pigeonpea during November, 2010 atthe National Pulses Research Centre,Vamban, Pudukkotai. The infestationwas observed on the base of the mainstem initially @ 5-10 colonies/5 cm inthe vegetative stage of the crop. In eachovisac, 300-355 eggs were observed onan average. From the main stem themealy bug infestation spread to theleaves. The nymphs were found on theventral side of the leaves. Their feedingresulted in premature leaf drying andsevere infestation led to drying of theyoung plants. Owing to the potential ofcausing damage, detailed bio-ecologyof the pest is required to be studied.

N. Chitra, R.P. Soundararajan,S. Geetha and S.Suresh

National Pulses Research Centre,Vamban (T.N.)

Heavy Infestation ofRoot-knot Nematode in

PigeonpeaPigeonpea variety Bahar was

found severely infested with root-knotnematodes in a large patch during2010-11 at the New Research Farm ofIIPR, with characteristic symptoms ofstunted growth, yellow leaves, thinstem, few branches and no flowering.The reduction in overall growth ofaffected plants was over 50% and rootsystem was found heavily galled withhigh gall index (5.0) recorded on theroots. The galled roots were stained inacid fuchsin and observed undermicroscope. The root-knots were full

of Meloidogyne females of javanicaspecies. This level of root-knotnematode infestation calls for propermanagement of the same in suchsandy soils. Deep summer ploughing,crop rotation with non-host crops suchas mustard, sorghum, wheat, maize,etc., use of trap crops and applicationof organic matter or neem cake @ 500kg/ha or neem seed powder @ 50 kg/ha helps to minimise nematodeinfestation especially in pigeonpea.

Bansa Singh, A. K. Choudhary andR. Jagdeeswaran

Automatic weather station

Stunted growth of infested plants

Pulses Newsletter : October - December, 2010 3

Residue RetentionConserves Soil

Moisture for SummerMungbean

An experiment was conducted forthree years at IIPR at fixed site onintegrated management of crop residueand fertilizer in rice-wheat–mungbeansystem. In residue retention, thebiomass of rice and mungbean (5 ton/ha in rice and 1.6 ton/ha in mungbeanon dry weight basis) were incorporated

Unique GenotypesDeveloped in

MungbeanA yellow-podded genotype, IPM

9-143-K, derived from an interspecificcross between IPM 03-1 (V. radiata L.Wilczek) and SPS 5 of urdbean (V.mungo L. Hepper) has been developedat IIPR. This genotype is semi-erect,indeterminate and has green, medium-sized leaves with greenish purple veins.Its stem colour is green, while the

petiole is green with purple splashes.The pods are straight, non-pubescent,short and are borne intermediate on theplant. The seeds are small, oval, greenand shiny. Interestingly, both theparents involved in developing thisgenotype have black coloured pods. Thepod colour in mungbean may beattributed to the involvement of manyloci for this trait. This genotype mayserve as a useful genetic resource asa morphological marker in futurebreeding programme and the varietiespossessing such distinct pod colourmay help in quality seed production.

Two extra-early maturinggenotypes have been developed atIIPR. Genotype IPM 409-4, derived froma cross PDM 288 x IPM 03-1, is short-statured, erect, determinate, leavesare dark green, ovate and medium-sized with greenish purple veins, andflowers are light yellow. The pods areborne above the canopy and are short,black and curved, while the seeds are

green, shiny and oval in shape. Anothergenotype, IPM 205-7, derived from across IPM 02-1 x EC 398889, has shortstatured erect plants with green, ovateleaves, a green stem with purplesplashes and yellow flowers, while thepod habit is intermediate and these areshort, straight and black on maturity.Its seeds are also green and shining.Both the genotypes mature in 46-48days and have synchronous maturitybesides being resistant to MYMV.

Aditya Pratap, Debjyoti Sen Gupta,B.B. Singh and Shiv Kumar

Promising LentilGenotype Identified for

Cultivation in UPA new lentil genotype IPL 313

developed at IIPR from a three-waycross [(ILL7659 × DPL-58) × KL-178]has performed well over three years innormal shown conditions in UP StateAdaptive Research Trials. The averageyield of the variety is 1226 kg/ha and it

is resistant to wilt and rust diseases.This is medium-bold seeded varietyhaving 2.6 g/100-seed weight. Thevariety is suitable for cultivation in UttarPradesh.

Jitendra Kumar

Research Highlights

IPM 409-4 IPM 205-7

IPM 9-143-K

Residue removal Residue retention

Effect of residue retention on summermungbean

in soil, while wheat stubbles of about25 cm height were kept in the fieldbefore sowing of summer mungbean.In the residue removal plot, the entireabove-ground biomass of all the threecrops was removed from the field.Mungbean yield was 9% higher(900 kg/ha) in residue retention plotthan the removal treatment (825 kg/ha).The soil moisture data also showedthat residue retention helped inconserving 44% and 13.8% more soilmoisture at 0-15 and 15-30 cm soildepth, respectively, which could be thepossible reason for higher seed yieldof summer mungbean. Visualobservation showed that summermungbean crop was dark green andvigorous in residue retention than theremoval treatment.

K.K.Singh

4 Indian Institute of Pulses Research

Ribozyme Technologyfor Developing Yellow

Mosaic ResistantPulses

With the aim to develop yellowmosaic resistant urdbean (Vignamungo), a ribozyme gene has beendesigned against the conserved RNAregion of replication initiation protein(rep) of MYMIV at IIPR, Kanpur. In-vitroanalysis of the synthetic ribozyme has

shown promising results in catalyzingthe rep-mRNA into desired fragmentsize of 309 and 211 nucleotides. Aftersuccessful in-vitro analysis, this genehas been cloned into binary vector andV. mungo is being transformed usingAgrobacterium method which will bescreened for ribozyme expression andvirus inhibition.

Annika Singh and Subhojit Datta

Pulses Restore SoilOrganic Carbon

Growing pulses in place of cerealcrops could potentially influence bothcarbon addition and humificationprocess and affect the magnitude ofsoil organic carbon (SOC). Results oflong-term experiments at IIPR indicatedthe improvement of C-pool in maize-wheat- mungbean system over maize–wheat system (6.25 % increase inactive carbon pool). It is definite thatcontinuous growing of pulses as cover/catch /inter crop or relay crop will paybetter returns in long-run in terms ofSOC restoration. Water use efficiency,

nutrient acquisit ion and C-sequestration of some of the pulsegenotypes are being tested for SOCrestoration in cereal based system sothat farmers can maintain their farmproductivity without any additional cost.

P.K. Ghosh, M.S. Venkatesh,K.K. Hazra and K.K. Singh

Edible Products fromPigeonpea Milling

By-productAn effort has been made at IIPR

to develop few products from pigeonpeamilling by-product (husk and dalpowder). Cleaned and washedpigeonpea was dehusked in abrasivedehusking device. Husk and cotyledonpowder obtained from milling wasutilized as an ingredient in variousrecipes like barfi, ladoo, sev, kachri,sweet puries, kachauri masala, etc.The edible products developed frommilling waste were evaluated for tasteand were found satisfactory. Eatablesmade of the by-product show scope forutilization of complete grain anddevelopment of neutraceuticals from theproducts normally considered as millingwaste. Utilization of low protein and highfibre of pigeonpea or pulse milling by-product in the form of edible productswill open new vistas for dietarysupplements and several indigenouscuisines.

Prasoon Verma and R.P. Srivastava

Natural Parasitizationof Leaf Webber in Late

PigeonpeaLeaf webber or leaf tier, Grapholita

(Cydia) critica Meyrick is a commonpest of pigeonpea throughout thevegetative stage. During a survey in theBundelkhand area, a sol i taryhymenopteran parasitoid was recordedon the larvae of leaf webber from August

to November, 2010 and highestparasitization (22.4%) was recordedduring first week of October, coincidingwith the peak activity of the pest. Theadult parasitoid was black in colour andmeasured about 2-3 mm in size.Identification of the parasitoid is inprogress.

P. Duraimurugan, Hem Saxena,S.K. Singh and C. Chattopadhyay

Evaluation of VerticalThresher for Urdbean

At IIPR, a vertical thresher hasbeen developed and evaluated forstripped pigeonpea and chickpeawithout any kind of adjustment in thethresher, though there is widedifference in grain size of the two crops.The thresher was also evaluated forurdbean crop. Urdbean has sturdy plantstructure, which takes much time tothresh manually. About 2 kg of grain isrecovered per 10 kg of harvestedurdbean biomass by manual threshing.By using the above vertical thresherfor urdbean biomass, capacity of about200 kg/h was observed, withcorresponding seed recovery of 13.85kg seed/60 kg biomass. As blower issituated at upper portion of the thresher,therefore chances of grain loss throughwinnowing are minimum. With 8% chaff(<5 cm) and bruising percentage of1.7%, this vertical thresher can beefficiently used without any machineadjustment for urdbean.

Prasoon Verma and S. K. Garg

Transformed urdbean plant

Pupa of parasitoid emerging from theparasitized larva

Pulses Newsletter : October - December, 2010 5

Predators for Insect Pests in Early PigeonpeaInsect pests are major

biotic constraints in pigeonpeaproduction in India. Among severalpredators in early pigeonpeaecosystem, lady bird beetle, Coccinellaseptempunctata L. and Cheilomenessexmaculata (Fab.), sting bug,

dragonf ly, Crocothemis servillaDrury, green lace wings, Chrysoperlazastrowi arabica Henry, common wasp,Vespa orientalis L., spider, Clubionasp., Araneus sp., Indian myna,Acridotheris tristis L. and house crow,Corvus splendens Vieillot help in

restricting the population of insectpests considerably. For sustainablemanagement of insect pests in-situconservation and maintenance of thesepredators is important to reduce thepesticide load in early pigeonpeaecosystem.

Predators of pigeonpea insect pests prevailing in the early pigeonpea ecosystem

S. D. Mohapatra and S.K. SinghTransfer of Technology

Skill Oriented Farmers’ TrainingFarmers’ training on 'Improved Production Technology

of Pulse Crops' sponsored by Pulse Development Project,Tal Area, Patna (Bihar) was organised at IIPR during October

20-23 and December 24-28, 2010, to create awareness,upgrade knowledge and improve skills of participatory farmerson major pulse crops. Dr. N. Nadarajan, Director urged theparticipants to adopt situation specific technologicalpackages in the prevailing cropping system for maximizationof productivity and harnessing better income. All productionand post-harvest related aspects of pulse crops werethoroughly discussed through interaction, lectures,demonstrations, etc. Total 52 farmers from Mokama, LakhiSarai and Patna districts of Bihar took active part in theprogramme.

State Level Dalhan SeminarState level Dalhan Seminar sponsored by Directorate

of Agriculture, U.P. was organized at the Institute onDecember 16, 2010. Dr. N. Nadarajan, Director, IIPR whileinaugurating the programme emphasized on inclusion ofpulse crops in different cropping systems at least once everyalternate year, which will help in improving and sustainingthe soil health as well as annual income of the farmers.Interactive lectures were arranged on different production,protection and post-harvest management aspects related topulse crops. Total 58 farmers from the identified districtsparticipated in the programme.

6 Indian Institute of Pulses Research

Field Days Organised byKVK Bikaner

Under harnessing of pulse productivity programme ofICAR, demonstrations on mungbean variety IPM 02-3 werelaid in 10 ha area during kharif 2010 in Bikaner district(Rajasthan) in the villages Meghasar, Akhasar, Bholasar,Surdhana, Ambasar, Deshnok and Bikaner. The technologicalinterventions including balanced use of fertilizers (NPK) andproven agronomical technologies were adopted to maintainplant population and weed control. Bacterial leaf blight andthrips incidence at initial seedling stage were controlled by

foliar application of copper oxychloride @ 2 g/l of water andspraying dimethoate @ 1.5 ml/l of water, respectively. Theperformance of IPM 02-3 was excellent with no incidence ofMYMV. Farmers appreciated the variety because of its highyield performance and synchronous maturity. Uniformmaturity significantly reduced the cost of labour incurred inpicking of pods as compared to other varieties of mungbean.

Exposer Visits Organized

PersonnelAppointment

Promotions

TransferSh. Rajeev Nigam was relieved from the Institute on

04.12.2010 to join as Asstt. Administrative Officer at ZonalProject Directorate, Kanpur.

Date Programme District/ State No. of farmers

19.10.2010 ATMA Basti (U.P.) 40

22.10.2010 Dalhan Development Programme

Patna (Bihar) 28

27.10.2010 Educational Tour Lucknow (U.P) 50 B.Sc. (Ag.) students

10.11.2010 Harit Kranti Yojna Sant Kabir Nagar (U.P)

65

07.12.2010 ATMA Sitapur (U.P) 95

13.12.2010 Sugarcane Development

Muzaffarnagar (U.P)

40

14.12.2010 ATMA Hamirpur (U.P) 70

15.12.2010 National Horticulture

Morena (M.P.) 100

16.12.2010 DASP Lucknow (U.P) 78

18.12.2010 ATMA Basti (U.P) 50

27.12.2010 Dalhan Development Programme

Patna (Bihar) 30

Name Post Date of joining

Sh. Deen Dayal Kumar Technical Assistant (T-3)

01.11.2010

Name Promoted to w.e.f. Dr. Shiva Kant Singh Principal Scientist 14.11.2008 Sh. Shiv Saran Singh Assistant 04.11.2008 Smt. Reeta Mishra UDC 04.11.2008

Pulses Newsletter : October - December, 2010 7

Important Meetings Attended byDr. N. Nadarajan, Director

Our New ColleagueDr. Jagdish

Singh has joined theInstitute on October12 , 2010 as Head,Div ision of CropP h y s i o l o g y ,Biochemistry andMicrobiology.

Award/ Recognition Dr. P.K. Ghosh,Head, Division of CropProduction, has beenelected as Fellow ofthe National Academyof AgriculturalSciences.

In recognition of hissignificant researchcontributions, Dr.Sanjeev Gupta,Principal Scientist(Crop ImprovementDiv ision), washonoured with SAP Recognition Award2010 by the Society of AgriculturalProfessionals during NationalSymposium on Food Security incontext of Changing Climate held onOctober 30, 2010, at CSA Universityof Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur.

Dr. C. Chattopadhyay, Head, Divisionof Crop Protection,delivered theprestigious Prof .V.P.Bhide MemorialAward Lecture at 32nd

Annual Conference ofthe Indian Society ofMycology and PlantPathology held at JunagadhAgricultural University, Junagdh onNovember 24, 2010, as an honourbestowed upon him by the society.

S. No.

Date Place Event

1. October 4, 2010

Delhi Attended special meeting of VCs of Agricultural Universities at NASC Complex as special invitee.

2. October 7-9, 2010

Ranchi Attended 20th Regional Committee Meeting of ICAR under the chairmanship of Secretary, DARE and Director General, ICAR at BAU, Ranchi

3.

October 25, 2010

Durgapura Attended inaugural function of the Group Meet on solving the pulses crises through crop diversification.

4. November 9, 2010

S.K. Nagar Attended inaugural session of national training on “Maintenance breeding and purification of existing varieties of pulses”.

5. November 25, 2010

Bhopal Met Principal Secretary, Agriculture, Additional Chief Secretary and Hon’ble Agriculture Minister of M.P. state regarding transfer of land for regional station of IIPR, Kanpur at Bhopal.

6. November 29, 2010

Mohali (Chandigarh)

Attended brainstorming session for growing soyabean and kharif pulses in Punjab, chaired by Dr. G.S. Kaikat, Chairman, Punjab State Farmers' Commission.

7. December 13, 2010

Delhi Attended project presentation meeting held under the chairmanship of the Director General, ICAR and presented project proposal on “Development of transgenics against gram pod borer in chickpea and pigeonpea”.

8. December 23, 2010

Delhi Attended 58th Meeting of Central Sub-Committee on crop standard, notification and release of varieties at NBPGR, New Delhi.

9. December 27, 2010

Delhi Attended preliminary QRT meeting with DDG (CS), ICAR & Chairman, QRT. Explained about the achievements during XI plan period.

10. December 29-30, 2010

Dharwad and Banglore

Regarding off-season nursery for IIPR at Dharwad.

8 Indian Institute of Pulses Research

Published by Dr. N. Nadarajan, Director, Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Kanpur-208 024Tel. : 0512-2570264; EPBAX Lines : 0512- 2572464, 2572465; Fax : 0512-2572582

E-mail : director@iipr.ernet.in ; n.nadarajan@gmail.com; Website; http://www.iipr.res.inPrinted at Army Printing Press, 33, Nehru Road, Sadar Cantt. Lucknow-226 002. Tel. : 0522-2481164, 6565333

(N. Nadarajan)

Dear Readers,

Transgenicresearch isimpacting cropi m p r ov em en toptions by way ofp r o v i d i n gresistance againstmajor insect-pests, herbicidet o l e r a n c e ,increasing shelf

life of vegetables and fruits, andfortification of food with vitamins andminerals. In India, transgenic crops havebeen successfully produced in severallaboratories. Cotton, brinjal, tomato andrice are major crops in which thetransgenics have been field tested inIndia. Though, first transgenic wasapproved in cotton for commercialcultivation in India in 2002. Since then,transgenic cotton is gaining ground inmost of the cotton growing areas of thecountry. This has stimulated thetransgenic work considerably and it isexpected that such plants will soonbecome available in other crops.Programmes are underway to developtransgenic pulse crops especiallychickpea and pigeonpea.

Development of insect resistantcrops has been a major area oftransgenic research in agriculturesector. At present, Bt transgenics haveproved to be highly effective inmanagement of lepidopteran pests ofseveral crops. The lepidopteran pest,pod borer (Helicoverpa armigera) causesextensive loss to chickpea andpigeonpea. Since classical methodswere not successful due to non (N. Nadarajan)

Director’s Deskavailability of donors for recombinationbreeding, transgenic research hasbecome increasingly important fordeveloping pod borer resistance inchickpea and pigeonpea. ICAR hasmade sincere efforts in this direction byproviding network project on transgenicdevelopment against pod borer inchickpea and pigeonpea during 2003with an outlay of Rs. 135.78 lakhinvolving IIPR, NRCPB and ICAR-NEHas collaborators. This project aimed atstandardizing transformation systemwith Bt gene. IIPR has well standardizedsystem for regeneration and genetictransformation of chickpea andpigeonpea. Efforts have also been madeat IIPR, NRCPB, ICRISAT, NBRI andAssam Agricultural University fortransferring several versions of Btgenes like Cry 1Ab, Cry 1Ac and Cry1Aabc. IIPR has transgenic events inboth these crops that are in T1 or T2generations. Ef f icient bioassayprotocols have been developed forconfirmation of events. Recently, aproject has been approved under ICAR-National Fund Project on developmentof pod borer resistant transgenicpigeonpea and chickpea with an outlayof Rs. 795.30 lakh involving IIPR, NRCPBand IIT, Kharagpur. Apart f romdevelopment of Bt transgenics, researchefforts should also be directed fortransgenic development using othergenes such as lectins, proteaseinhibitors, etc. Transgenic developmentin pulses for drought and salinity shouldalso be attempted. These efforts willlead to development of functionaltransgenics in pulses. Efforts are alsoneeded towards commercialization oftransgenics in pulse crops.

Transgenic crops are subjected toelaborate tests to assess the risks andto ensure safety, before they areapproved for commercial cultivation. Ifthe produce is not eaten (e.g. cotton),the concerns are minimum. But theproducts from chickpea and pigeonpeaare consumed by human beings andanimals, therefore, transgenics in thesecrops would need highest assurancefrom biosafety point of view. In thiscontext, the genes used and methodsemployed assume significance frombiosafety perspective. Current methodsof transformation require the use ofselection markers (mainly antibioticresistance) to eliminate untransformedcells. However, the marker genes haveno uti l ity in cultivation or in thecommercial products. In fact,constitutive expression of marker geneproducts is a drain on plant metabolism.Therefore, utmost efforts are needed toemploy strategies for marker freetransformation process or the removalof markers from transgenic plantswhen produced.

Transgenic cultivar developmentrequires large scale trials under strictcontainment facilities. For conductinglarge scale transgenic trials, P II leveltransgenic containment facility isavailable at IIPR. This facility can beutilized by all those who are involved indeveloping transgenics in chickpea andpigeonpea. I call upon all the scientistsengaged in transgenic research to joinhands in a consortium mode fordevelopment of commercial transgenicsin pulses.