🍲 Pigeonpea

Important points related to cultivation of Pigeonpea.

Pigeonpea

  • Botanical Name: Cajanus cajan
  • Cajanus cajan flavus (Early maturing)
  • Cajanus cajan bicolor (Late maturing)
  • Family: Leguminaceae / Papilonaceae
  • Chromosome No: 2n = 22
  • Origin: Africa
  • Pigeonpea is also called as Arhar, Tur and Red gram.
  • Cajanus is derived from a Malay word β€˜katschang’ or β€˜katjang’ meaning pod or bean.
  • Arhar crop works as mini fertilizer crop.
  • After chickpea, arhar is the second most important pulse crop.
  • The prominent pigeonpea growing states are Maharashtra (highest), MP, UP, Bihar, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab, Gujarat, AP and Tamil Nadu.

Climate

  • Pigeon pea grows well under warm tropical and subtropical climate.
  • During vegetative growth, crop prefers a fairly moist and warm climate.
  • During flowering and ripening stage, it requires bright sunny weather for proper fruit setting.
  • It is highly susceptible to frost at the time of flowering.
  • Pigeonpea can be grown with a temperature ranging from 26Β° to 30Β°C in the rainy season (June to October) and 17Β° to 22Β°C in the post-rainy (November to March) season.
  • The length of growing season extends from 120 to 180 days.
  • It has the capacity to tolerate moisture stress to a greater extent because of its deep/tap rooted system.
  • Alachlor and Pendimethaline (as pre-emergence) and Basalin (as postemergence) are used to control weeds in pigeonpea field.
  • Protein content is 22 per cent.
  • Hardy crop, most drought tolerant crop among major pulse. ⭐️
  • It is an often-cross pollinated crop. An average cross pollination is 20 per cent. A plant produces many flowers of which only 10 per cent set pods.
  • C3, Short day plant.
  • Seed germination is hypogeal type.
  • Thermal energy is required to break the seed coat.

Soil

  • It does best on light texture, fertile and well drained loamy soils.
  • It requires a soil pH range of 5-8.
  • The saline-alkaline (> 8 pH) and waterlogged soils are unfit for its cultivation.

Sowing

Sowing Time

  • Medium-early Pegionpea: 1st fortnight of April (for double cropping)
  • Late Pegionpea: 1st week of July
  • Pre-rabi Pegionpea: Sept or October
  • Punjab and Haryana: 1st week of June
  • UP and Rajasthan: 2nd fortnight of June Seed Rate
  • Early Pegionpea: 15-18 kg/ha
  • Late Pegionpea: 10-15 kg/ha
  • For bunds planting: 2 kg/ha
  • Spacing: Common: 60 x 30 cm.
  • Plant population for kharif is 55,000 plants/ha.
  • Critical stage of Irrigation: Pre-flowering, Pod development

Comparison between Arhar and Tur

  • Crop rotation: Pigeonpea is grown in summer as a Kharif crop in North India, and Kharif and Rabi in South India. The important crop rotations are:
    • Paddy – Paddy – Pigeonpea
    • Groundnut + Pigeonpea – Sorghum/Bajra/Maize
    • Groundnut – Rabi Pigeonpea
    • Urd bean – Rabi Pigeonpea
    • Soybean – Rabi Pigeonpea
    • Pigeonpea + Urd bean – Wheat
    • Mung bean – Pigeonpea
    • Pigeonpea – Cotton

Fertilizer

  • N - 20-25 kg N/ha (Starter application)
  • P - 50-65 kg P/ha
  • K - 20-35 kg K/ha
  • Zn - 2-4 ppm zinc (foliar applications of 0.5 per cent Zinc Sulphate)
  • Ca - 0.25 per cent lime

Varieties of Pigeonpea released in India

Varieties of Pigeonpea with to different characters

  • Earliest variety of Pigeonpea is UPAS-120.
  • World’s first hybrid variety of Pigeonpea is ICPH-8, developed by ICRISAT, Hyderabad in 1991 by using genetic male sterility (GMS). This variety matures in 130 to 132 days with an average productivity of 20 qt/ha.

Disease

Insect-Pest

Yield

  • Pigeon pea may yield about 20-25 quintals of grain and 50-60 quintals of sticks per hectare.
  • In storage time grain moisture should be 10-11%.
  • Proportion of seed to pod is 50-60 per cent.
  • Harvest index (HI) is 19% (lowest among pulses).

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