Genetic Enhancement of Lentil for Adaptation to Various Cropping Systems and Nutritional Security in South Asia 2-13 September 2019. New Delhi, India. Over 8,000 participants from all over the world participated in COP14. Presentation by Ashutosh Sarker

1. International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas
icarda.org cgiar.org
A CGIAR Research Center
Genetic Enhancement of Lentil for
Adaptation to Various Cropping Systems
and Nutritional Security in South Asia
Ashutosh Sarker & Team
ICARDA, New Delhi, India

2. Rainfed Cereal-based
Systems
Mixed Integrated Crop-
Livestock System
Food Legume Systems
India
Platforms
Regional/Country Offices
ICARDA HQ
Mapping ICARDA Research Sites

3. • Established on 71 ha land in Madhya Pradesh state (Central India)
• Research on genetic enhancement of lentil, grasspea, faba bean, Kabuli chickpea,
barley, bread and durum wheat; cropping systems, conservation agriculture, improving
water productivity, and adaptation of spineless Cactus are underway
• Sharing promising genetic materials with Indian NARS
• Facilitate technology dissemination
• Conferred the status of UN International Organization by the Govt. of India
Strengthening ICARDA-research Agendas for South
Asia: Establishing Food Legume Research Platform

4. Sustainability Ecological Security
Human, Animal and Soil health
Why Pulses…
Lentil is the best option for
intensification

5. Pulses offer many nutritional benefits
• Pulses are three times richer in
protein as compared to rice
• Pulses have complementary Amino
acid profile with cereals
• Micro-nutrient rich grains (Fe, Zn)
• Probiotic carbohydrates make
pulses a great functional food

6. Pulses: House of Nutrients
Nutritional quality of a pulse crop is
adjudged by relative content of
protein, minerals, carbohydrate,
lipids, vitamins
Protein 18-36%
Carbohydrate 53-68%
Lipids 1-5%
Minerals Ca, K, Mg, Fe, Zn, Se
Vitamins Thiamin, Niacin, Riboflavin

7. Common Pulses in Human Diet
Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)
Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan L.)
Mungbean (Vigna radiata L.)
Blackgram (Vigna mungo L.)
Lentil (Lens culinaris Medikus)
Grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.)
Field pea (Pisum sativum L.)
Faba bean (Vicia faba L.)
Common bean (P. vulgaris L.)
Horsegram (M.uniflorum Verdc.)
Mothbean (V.aconitifolium Jacq.).)
A road-side market in Nepal

8. Country
Year
Area (ha) Production (tons) Productivity (kg/ha)
2005 2017 2005 2017 2005 2017
Bangladesh 153831 154746 121065 168837 787 (39%) 1091
India 1470000 1657500 994200 1220000 676 (09%) 736
Nepal 188895 206969 160716 254308 851 (44%) 1229
Pakistan 43400 14700 25900 7600 597 (-) 517
World 4100110 6582779 3922107 7590761 957 1153
Source: http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QC
Area, Production and Productivity of Lentil in
South Asian countries and World

9. Key Strategies
Increasing productivity: Bridging yield gap
• Genetic Enhancement and promotion of quality seeds
• Improved production technologies
 Production through horizontal expansion
• Utilization of fallow lands
• Rotation with cereals
• Promotion of inter-cropping
Lower cost of cultivation: Mechanization, ICM
Reduce milling loss: seed traits
 Enhancing nutritional quality
 Traits for value addition, consumers’ preference
Target: Small and marginal farmers

10. CollectMission: Conserve Characterize Evaluate Document Distribute
Crop Accessions
Barley 24,975+
Wheat 34,227+
Wild cereals 7,671
Forage legumes 28,469
Food legumes 35,313+
Wild food legumes 957
Rangeland grasses 5,744
Make-up of the ICARDA collection
>155,000 Accessions Collected from Center of Origin
and Primary Diversity

11. icarda.org 11
• Plant Height, height of lowest pod , presence of
tendrils, pod dehiscence, pod shedding, and
lodging susceptibility-
• ILL6783, ILL4471, ILL4886, ILL5028, ILL5968,
ILL6994, ILL7979, ILL7981, ILL8114, ILL10284,
ILL10690, ILL10810, and ILL10863
Development of machine harvestable, herbicide tolerant lentil for commercial
production
Lentil in South Asia

12. icarda.org 12
Development of small-seeded and extra short-duration
lentil varieties suitable in rice fallows as relay (no-tillage)
and sole crops in new niches of rice-based cropping system
Trial Entries in AICRP with ICARDA germplasm
IVT-Small
seeded
LL1383 (LL147/FLIP2005-42L); LL1396
(LL967/FLIP2004-53L); VL527
(ILL4605/DPL62); IPL537 (ILL864/ILL7663)
AVT-1 LL1370 (LL932/FLIP2003-16L) - NHZ; LL1397
(LL967/FLIP2004-53L – NWPZ
AVT-2 LL1373 (IPL 406/FLIP2004-7L) – NWPZ; IPL336
(ILL6002/JL3 – NWPZ
Line identified
for release
L4727 (Sehore 74-3/ILL4605 – Central Zone
Variety released: L4727,
• developed by the IARI
• released for central zone
• matures in 100 days
• tolerant to Fusarium wilt
• Average grain yield is about
1.3 tons per ha.

13. Pre-Breeding: Donors identified and populations
developed in lentil
463 wild species and 311 landraces
introduced
Donor parents identified and used
• Fusarium wilt 14
• Heat 17
• Drought 2
• Salinity 5
• Early 13
• High biomass 3
• Large seeds 21
• Rust 3
• Powdery mildew 2
Segregating populations are being
advanced

14. Biofortification of Lentil with Fe & Zn
• India: Pusa Vaibhav, IPL-220, Moitree
• Ethiopia: Alemaya
• Bangladesh: Barimasur-4, Barimasur-5
and Barimasur-6, Baimasur-7, Barimasur-8
• Nepal: Sisir, Shital, Shekhar, Khajurah-1,
Khajurah-2, Khajurah-3
• Turkey: Myveci-2001
• Portugal: Beleza
• Syria: Idlib-2, Idlib-3 and Idlib-4
Pusa Vaibhav in India
Khajurah-2, in Nepal Barimasur-7 in Bangladesh
(Fe->75 ppm and Zn->50 ppm)

15. Stemphylium blight: A killer foliar disease of Lentil across
Bangladesh, eastern India and Nepal
Bangladeshi farmers
-Recently released resistant
variety “Barimasur-8” is being
up-scaled in Bangladesh.
-Resistant lines identified in
India. ILL10802, ILL 10231, ILL
10257, ILL10832 , NDL 11-1,
PRECOZ
An Indian farmer Nepalese scientists
R-Barimasur-8 S- Local

16. • High tolerance to Stemphylium blight
• Late potentiality (last week of Nov.)
• Fe- 76-78 ppm, Zn- 58-60 ppm
• High Yield (2.2-2.4 t/ha)
16
BARI Masur 8: Bangladesh
S

17. Farmer: Mr A K Roy
Harvested 3.04 tons/ha
Moitree Lentil Variety
Awarded by the Govt.
Up-scaling in India: NFSM, OCPF, IFAD, State Govts.

18. About 15 million ha in SA
Utilization of Rice Fallow: 4 m ha in
India; 0.24 m ha in Nepal; 0.3 m ha
in Bangladesh
Intensification
Lentil in rice fallows

19. Mapping, assessment of crop/variety suitability
and bringing appropriate technologies in rice fallows

20. Mapping suitable area for Lentils in West Bengal

21. Lentil and Grasspea Technologies in Rice Fallows:
Promising varieties have been identified
Lentil in rice fallows (HUL-57, Moitree, IPL-81, NDL-1)
Grasspea in Rice Fallows (Ratan, Nirmal, Prateek)
Lentil mix-cropping with
mustard

22. Seed Priming an excellent technology
Primed
Non-Primed
Seed priming increases 20-30% yield

23. Rice
Jul-Oct
Grasspea/
Lentil
Nov - Feb
Sesame/Mung bean
Mar - May
Fallow after rice
Nov - June
One Rice Crop only Three Crops
A new cropping patters in
rice fallows

24. Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
Aman rice Boro rice
Pattern: Aman rice -Pulses- Boro rice
24

25. Mixed-cropping and Inter-cropping with Lentil
Growing multiple crops on the same land at
the same time provides production support to
farmers in-case some crops fail due to climatic
vagaries and appearance of pests and diseases
Farmers can meet diversified food
requirements for nutritional security at house-
hold level, and feed demands as well.
Appropriate proportion of seed rates and other
agronomic operations of various crop mixtures
enhances production
Contribute to soil health improvement, thus
ensure sustainable production systems
Maintain in-situ biodiversity
Lentil and sugarcane mixed cropping Mustard and lentil mixed cropping
Lentil variety “Barimasur-6” is
suitable in mango/litchi orchard
(source: Ali et al.)

26. Lentil varieties released in South Asia
S. No. Countries Name of varieties released Key Traits
1. Bangladesh Barimasur-2, Barimasur-4, BARImasur-5,
BARImasur-6, BARIMasur-7, Binamasur-7,
BARI Masur-8, BARI Masur- 9, Binamasur-10
= 9
Varieties released in
South Asian
countries
addressing
important traits like
phenological
adaptation,
earliness, high
biomass, disease
resistance, drought
tolerance, etc.
2. India NDL-1, Moitree, DPL-62, DPL-58, IPL-406,
IPL-316, IPL-526, VL-507, L-4717, VL-514,
VL-516, L-4727, LL-1374, Shekhar-4, IPL-220
= 15
3. Nepal Sikhar, Simal, Khajura 1, Khajura-2, Shital,
Moheswar Bharati, Sagun, Swoshtika, Khajura 3, RL4
= 10
4. Pakistan Masoor 85, Manserha 89, Masoor-93, Shiraz-96, Masoor-
2002, Masoor-2006, NARC-06-1,
Punjab Masoor
= 8

27. Adoption and Impact of Lentil Research in Bangladesh
• Lentil is the most popular and widely consumed pulse in Bangladesh in a rice-lentil diet
• Nine varieties have been jointly developed with high level of Stemphylium blight resistance, wide
adaptation, suitable under zero-tillage and high yield
• >92% Lentil area have been covered by improved varieties with extra production, worth about $ 51.6
m annually. About 1.1 m farmers adopted the technology

28. Lentil : A Success Story in Nepal
• Lentil occupies 63% of total pulses, and most widely consumed in Nepal
• Farmers in mid-hills regions adopted new lentil varieties (new areas)
• High iron (>83 ppm) and zinc (>55 ppm) varieties are available to consumers
• 58% farmers adopted new varieties and improved production technologies; extra production
of 36,128 tons, worth US$ 29 m annually; and 918,266 farm families are directly benefitted.
Source: D B Gharti et al. (2015) (National Coordinator of GLRP, Nepal)

29. Value addition from pulses: women SHG
Lentil De-hulling and packaging Bori from grasspea, chickpea flour Using new techniques
Packed Bori Training Program Lentil-Mango bar Grasspea cake

30. Awareness and capacity development

31. Conclusion
• Successful reduction in yield gap and fallow intensification
through climate-resilient pulse crops is underway: Development
and deployment of crop and site specific technologies
• Food diversification through a range of pulse crops: Nutritious
and health-food
• Improved productivity of cereal system - N-fixation & C-
sequestration: Improving soil health
• House-hold nutritional security: Small-holder farmers
• Women SHG can earn extra-income from value addition,
processing and marketing
• Contribute to animal feed and fodder

32. Lentil……..safeguarding nutritional security
Thank you