Development of disease tolerant green gram varieties for improved food security, nutrition and livelihood in marginal areas of Kenya
Green gram is a drought tolerant crop and a central income generating agro-enterprise in semi-arid Kenya ranking second after indigenous chicken. On-farm yield is <1 t//ha. Low production is attributed to biotic (anthracnose, angular leaf spot, mung bean yellow mosaic virus, bacterial blight) and abiotic factors. Insufficient farmers’ knowledge of crop management options is also a major limitation. Under ASAL APRP support, KALRO recently developed and released three varieties that are early maturing, large seeded with >20% yield advantage over the local varieties. However, these varieties have shown susceptibility to major green gram diseases. There is therefore need to extend genetic gains to value addition of disease tolerance in the newly released varieties. The following sub-activities are proposed;
- Identify disease tolerant donor parent for use in green gram breeding programme
- Develop high yielding, market acceptable disease tolerant varieties
- Develop and validate agronomic packages for field management of green grams