Abstract
Legume breeding at AVRDC - The World Vegetable Center currently focuses on two crops: mungbean (Vigna radiata [L.] Wilzcek var. radiata) and vegetable soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merrill). High yielding, short duration mungbean varieties bred by AVRDC in conjunction with 29 national partners across Asia revolutionized the industry over the last two decades and increased global production by more than a third. New sources of resistance to mungbean yellow mosaic disease have been identified in related species such as black gram (Vigna mungo [L.] Hepper) and are being introgressed into elite mungbean lines. Improving protein quality by transferring high methionine and bruchid resistance traits from black gram is in progress. Selection of local land races and transfer of desirable traits from grain soybean are being used to develop vegetable soybean with higher pod yield, improved seed size and colour, higher sugar content, basmati flavour, less sensitive to photoperiod and temperature.
Highlights
The need for legume improvement programs was recognised during the 1970s for tackling protein malnutrition (FAO 1985), and to include legumes as part of cropping systems
Summary: Legume breeding at AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center currently focuses on two crops: mungbean (Vigna radiata [L.] Wilzcek var. radiata) and vegetable soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merrill)
Varieties developed included lines with shorter duration (55-70 days to maturity compared to the traditional ones that matured in 90-110 days); resistance to major diseases such as mungbean yellow mosaic, Cercospora leaf spot and powdery mildew; lines that were less photoperiod sensitive and had synchronized maturity; improved plant habit such as plant types with pods above the canopy; and improved tolerance to lodging and pod shattering
Summary
The need for legume improvement programs was recognised during the 1970s for tackling protein malnutrition (FAO 1985), and to include legumes as part of cropping systems. This was in the aftermath of cereal focused agricultural research, which began to show signs of environmental problems (ESCAP 1985, Evenson & Gollin 2003, Sekhon et al 2007). Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam are the major vegetable soybean producing countries (Fig. 2). Due to the increasing value of land and high cost of labour, vegetable soybean production slowly decreased from 1999 in Taiwan and its share of global production was taken over by China, Thailand and Indonesia, where production costs are lower. This review covers the impact of AVRDC’s mungbean and vegetable soybean research
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