Pigeonpea: From an Orphan to A Leader in Food Legumes

More than six billion people of this planet are dependent on nurturing and harnessing agro-ecological biodiversity for food and nutritional security. Human life and civilizations have been influenced not only by cultivated taxa, but also by wild germplasm. The origin and fast-track evolution of agricultural crops aided by domestication have attracted considerable attention from evolutionary biologists, plant explorers, archaeobotanists, geneticists, and plant breeders worldwide in crops such as rice, wheat, and maize. However, legumes (barring soybean) have remained relatively neglected by the researchers. Globally, pigeonpea is grown on an area of 4.64 million hectares (Mha) annually with production of 3.43 million tonnes..............