🫛 Field Pea (*Pisum sativum*)

Field pea is an important cool-season pulse grown for dry grain, food use, and diversified pulse systems. It helps strengthen Rabi rotations and contributes to soil fertility through its legume nature.

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Field Pea at a Glance

Main points:

• commonly known as matar,
• important cool-season pulse,
• grown for dry grain and food use,
• cultivated in several continents under temperate and subtropical conditions.

World and Indian Importance

Field pea is important globally and in India because it adds pulse diversity and supports both human diet and cropping-system balance. Older statistical tables may vary by year, but the agronomic message remains the same: field pea is regionally important in cool-season pulse belts.

Origin and Types

Field pea is generally associated with the Mediterranean-West Asian region.

Two forms are commonly discussed:

• garden pea for vegetable use,
• field pea for dry grain use.

Field pea is the more relevant type in agronomy because it is grown mainly for pulse production.

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Climate and Soil

Field pea grows best under cool-season conditions.

It prefers:

• cool weather during vegetative growth,
• well-drained soils,
• moderate moisture without prolonged waterlogging.

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Agronomic Management

Sowing

Timely sowing is important to use winter moisture and avoid stress at flowering and pod filling.

Nutrient management

Being a legume, field pea does not need excessive nitrogen, but starter nitrogen and phosphorus support early growth and nodulation.

Water management

Field pea often grows under limited irrigation, but timely moisture at flowering and pod formation improves yield stability.

Cropping-system role

Field pea fits well in cereal-legume rotations and supports nitrogen economy in the farming system.

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Summary Cheat Sheet

Topic	Key Point
Crop role	Important cool-season pulse for grain use
Main distinction	Field pea differs from garden pea in end use
Climate fit	Cool-season crop with moderate moisture requirement
System role	Useful in cereal-legume rotations
Agronomic focus	Timely sowing, phosphorus, and nodulation support

• Varieties

  • Rachna, Pant Marter 5, HUP 2, DMR 11
  • Crop duration 110-140days
  • Seed weighs 160 – 240mg

• Soil

  • All types of soil
  • Poor to fertile
  • Well drained soil is more suitable since sensitive to salinity and alkalinity

• Field preparation

  • On heavy soils rough seed bed is suitable
  • Medium tillage is sufficient

• Seed treatment

  • For seed borne pests and diseases
  • Rhizobium for nodulation

• Season

  • NW Plains – end of October
  • NE Plains – Second fortnight of November
    • Soil moisture availability decides the time
    • Delay in sowing end with terminal drought

• Seed rate

  • Depends up on the size of the seeds & spacing
  • 50-60 kg for small seeded and 80-90 kg for bold seeded

• Method of sowing

  • Broadcasting and planking
  • Drilling manually
  • Seed drill sowing

• Depth of sowing

  • Since all cool season pulses are hypogeal can be planted deep depending on the moisture

• Nutrient Management

Ecosystem | Planting time | N | P2O5 | K2O | S

---|---|---|---|---|--- Rainfed | Normal | 20 | 40 | 0 | 20 Irrigated | Normal | 40 | 40 | 20 | 20 | Late | 40 | 40 | 20 | 20

• Crops are sown in residual soil moisture

• They may face terminal drought

• One or two supplemental irrigation is needed

• May be moisture conservation practices

• Weed management

• All methods to be employed

• Herbicides can also be as per kharif pulses

• Cropping systems

• Cereal – legume is always good

• They also under mixed community with winter cereals like wheat and barley

• Harvest

• Over ripening leads to great loss of yield

• Staggered harvesting is one way

• Cut entire plant and carry with moisture & then dry and thrash, clean

• Store the seeds at 8-10% moisture

Multiple choice questions

1. Pea is commonly known as ___________ a. Arhar b. Channa c. Matar
2. Centre of origin of pea is ___________ a. Mediterranean b.America c. W.bengal
3. The inflorescence of pea is called __________ a. Ear b. panicle c. Axilary raceme
4. The recommended seed rate for pea is _____kg/ha a. 60-80 b. 75-100 c.40-50
5. Pea crop needs ________ a. **Cold & dry climate **b. Hot & humid c. dry & hot
6. Pea should be treated with rhizobium inoculation of ________ a. R. Japonicum b. R. leguminosarum c. R. glycine
7. How much seed of Pea should be treated with one packet of rhizobium culture a. 5 kg b. 10 kg c. 15 kg
8. What is the ideal temperature for germination for pea a. 15-200c b. 22-250c c. 25-300c
9. Maximum area under pea cultivation in India is in a. M.P b. U.P c. Bihar
10. Higher yield of pea could be achieved by a. Use of higher dose of phosphate b. Adequate amount of N c. No nitrogen application

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